Kingsman: Chaos World
by julianmarq
Summary: Random missions for Eggsy, Roxy and Kingsman in general. Harry said that Kingsman only took the most difficult missions and, in a world after V-Day, things were bound to be even more chaotic and dangerous. A series of one shots depicting how work would usually look like for these people. Might have an overarching plot if the idea comes to me. Crosspost with AO3.
1. Standard Extraction

One year, two months and five days since Valentine's Day.

_"For a den of drug lords and gangsters, this is not too shabby"_. Were her first thoughts.

She was in the middle of a rather lavish room. The walls were decorated with striking paintings, the seats were clearly costly and a rather ugly chandelier was hanging above their heads. It was clear the owner of the house had been pretending with all her might to be a woman of wealth and taste but she couldn't quite pull it off.

Still, it was much better than Roxy was expecting when Merlin's intel was relayed to her and she found out her mark was trapped in a mafia boss's house in Cancun. She thought she would find herself in a dirty bar surrounded by drunk drug dealers and scantily clad street walkers.

She was dressed in a simple black cocktail dress, less revealing than what she used to wear but by now she was used to it. A bulletproof dress wasn't of much use if it couldn't protect most of her body and it would be impossible for her not to draw attention if she strolled around in a suit.

Despite the fact that most of the guests were also pretending to be upper-class gentlemen and ladies, it was obvious that they were only faking it to humor the hostess. Roxy stood out not only because her dress was far more modest (in every sense) but also because she clearly knew how to behave in these situations.

She mentally scolded herself for thinking like this, just a year ago she had witnessed the lengths to which class differences and assumed superiority could damage the world. They were still cleaning the mess. Plus she was reminding herself of Charlie and the other twits during training and that just wouldn't do.

Her glasses were scanning the room, trying to identify any possible hidden hallway that could lead to prisons but the house just seemed to be a regular, if garishly decorated, mansion.

She thought of asking Merlin for ideas, but she doubted he'd have the time to give her a lead on this, he might not even answer since he was attending at least ten different cases at any given time. Since V-Day the remaining Kingsmen had barely had a few days of free time each.

She decided that, for now, she would personally go through the house, if there were no hidden prisons then the only other possibility was that her mark was trapped in a normal room; that was her best lead.

She was casually walking towards the stairs, doing curt small talk with the people on her way before she came face to face with Maria Hernandez, the drug queenpin to which this house belonged.

"Oh hello dear." Said Maria, in a thick hispanic accent. "I don't think I had seen you before, who are you again?"

"Oh, I'm Helena Sobiezky, the daughter of Boris. He couldn't come and send me in his stead, in case any new partnership could be made." Recited Roxy in a flat eastern accent after daintily kissing Maria in both cheeks. Boris Sobiezky was a former Ukrainian gangster who had been chased out of his country and traveled to Mexico, seeking to start over a new empire. Tracking him down and disabling him had been difficult.

"Fascinating, I didn't know mr. Sobiezky had any children." Interjected Hernandez, eyeing Roxy more closely.

"Well, after what happened at home he made sure that me and my siblings were well hidden. You understand." Smiled Roxy. That much was true, except for the part that Sobiezky didn't actually have any daughters, just three sons and all of them quite younger than Roxy, but Maria Hernandez needn't know that.

"Of course, dear. Well, send my regards to your father and tell him that I'm all ears to any proposition he might have." Finished Maria before returning Roxy's kisses and going to talk to other guests.

That had been awkward, but Roxy was sure she had kept her cover. While still pretending to just be mulling about, she quickly climbed the stairs and started checking the rooms, hoping that her glasses would give her a better lead.

After searching through an entire wing and finding nothing more interesting than a threesome in one of the rooms, she finally stumbled upon trail.

A couple of men in trench coats with assault rifles slung across their backs were hurriedly walking in the other direction. They didn't pay her any attention before disappearing around a corner. She waited a few seconds before following them.

After going over two more hallways she heard talking just around the corner she was in right now. It was spanish, which she didn't understand. She cursed under her breath and waited for something to happen.

After a few minutes she heard laughing and then realized that she hadn't heard any female voice, there were only guys in there. If her intuition amounted to something, these guys must have been Hernandez's henchmen and were just going about their jobs, guarding whatever it was in that hallway.

Steeling herself, she left the empty glass of wine in the floor next to her and went over her tools. Her standard, undetectable gun was strapped to her leg and she had a spare in her purse, which she was now carrying. Albeit not as handy as Eggsy's umbrella, she had found the purse with its assortment of tools a pretty worthy replacement and many times she had commended Merlin on the design. She had on her signet ring and dart watch. Finally, she turned on the night vision on her glasses. Exhaling one last breath at the more than likely upcoming melee, she turned around the corner.

Five male heads immediately turned towards her, some raising their weapons almost instinctively.

"Oh, sorry." She chuckled. "I must have gotten lost."

"Nobody allow here." Replied the guy nearest to her. She just smiled at him before turning back. There were three doors in that hallway and her glasses had detected a heat signature behind the one in the right. She had found her target.

She hadn't fully turned their back to the men before she turned back, raised her purse while picking one of the seemingly decorative buttons and threw it at them.

The button exploded on the air and a thick white cloud expanded all over the hallway. Some of the guys screamed in confusion while others shot at her. But she was already on the move.

Thanks to her glasses she could see everything in clear detail and clinically dispatched three of the crooks with amnesia darts, emptying her watch, before she grabbed the hands of the fourth and, putting all her weight, did a cartwheel, breaking the guy's wrists and taking his gun, which she then used to shoot the final one squarely through the neck. Not missing a beat, she held the screaming mean whose hands she had just broken in a sleeper hold until he didn't move anymore.

By the time the white smoke had cleared after two minutes (the standard time), all of the men were on the floor with two of them dead. She didn't particularly enjoy using lethal force (she still remembered vividly how she had felt when she shot Quentin) but she hadn't expected these many henchmen either. Plus her guilt was somewhat lessened because a couple of shots had hit her, the familiar dull pain that the bullets left after impacting with her dress was unmistakable. It was something the Kingsmen just learned to live with.

She went to the guy she had shot, the one nearest the door, and sure enough she found keys in his pocket. What she saw after opening the door made her chest constraint a little.

There was no furniture in this room and, in a corner, he was curled in fetal position. He was stark naked and his body was almost completely covered in bruises, cuts and burns. Still, she breathed in a sigh of relief. He was in one piece and the fact that he was curling meant that he still could move, which was all she needed right now.

With a little effort, she dragged the two dead henchmen inside the room before closing the door, all too aware that she didn't have much time before a change of guard or just an inspection might come. And that was assuming nobody else had been attracted by the, admittedly little, noise.

After leaving the two corpses near the door she approached him and put a hand on his shoulder. She was almost too late to realize her mistake because he reacted as if he had been electrocuted. With surprising speed for somebody almost literally covered in injuries, but still slow for what she knew he was capable of, he jumped, landed on one foot -she didn't miss the shadow of pain that crossed his jaw at supporting all his weight in just one leg- and swept his other leg towards her. She had reacted just timely enough by ducking and then retreating a couple of steps, after which he seemed to come out of his scared daze.

"Holy shit, Roxy, why didn't you try to wake me up by sound?"

"That's Lancelot, if you don't mind, and I didn't think of that. Since you didn't wake up at this guy's whimpering I thought you were out for the count." She then smirked, after his display she was certain he wasn't going to die on her. "My, my, Galahad, finally your exterior reflects your ugly interior."

"Fuck off." Retorted Eggsy. He tried to smile but his expression quickly turned into a grimace as he grabbed his left ribs and leaned against the wall. "Shit, maybe I shouldn't have done that. How long has it been?"

"Two weeks; they did a surprisingly good job of hiding your trail, which means that this whole mission might not be a complete waste of time after all. Someone who can hide one of us from Merlin for this long is someone we have to treat carefully."

"Fucking pricks. So how are we getting out?" Asked Eggsy before shakily standing upright again.

"Well, first of all we should take one of these pigs' clothes and get you dressed, unless you want to go like that. I'm sure all of the ladies downstairs wouldn't complain." It was true, despite his injuries and that he clearly had been underfed during the past two weeks, he looked only slightly thinner than usual and kept most of his muscle definition. He looked like a celtic warrior just out of a particularly vicious battle. Roxy approved, but now was not the time to ogle her colleague.

"Well, that just wouldn't be gentlemanly, now would it?" This time Eggsy did manage to smirk before walking towards the two corpses.

The two Kingsmen took the pants and trenchcoat of the guy who was closer to Eggsy's build -the one Roxy had strangled- and his gun. Roxy took the small gun of the other crook and was about to open the door before they heard steps and screaming outside.

"Pero qué demonios pasó aquí?" Roxy faintly recognized the voice as belonging to one of the guys she had knocked out with amnesia darts. Apparently the effect of the drug was lifting. The other two guys didn't take long to wake up too and all three immediately went for the door.

After fast hand signaling, Eggsy and Roxy stood on both sides of the door just as it opened.

All three men barged into the room with their guns at the ready but all three forgot to clear their corners. Before they knew what was happening Roxy had shot two of them while Eggsy shot the last one.

Lancelot and Galahad promptly closed the door behind them and started walking through the hallway, trying to find a window. Eggsy was limping next to Roxy and thus they weren't going as fast as she would have liked, but it still beat having to drag him and kill whatever she found until she had to blow up a side of the building in order to get them out, which was what she had feared the mission would come to.

Just when her glasses told her they were reaching an outer wall of the house and thus windows, they heard screaming behind them. Roxy recognized Maria Hernandez's voice. She swiftly looked back before exclaiming. "RUN, GALAHAD."

She grabbed her colleague's arm and had just enough time to launch both of them behind a corner before a flurry of bullets went past where they just had been. The mafia boss had brought a small army with her. Apparently her cover had been blown after all.

"Lancelot, the window!" yelled Eggsy. It was thankfully right in front of them. Just when the queenpin and her men doubled the corner Eggsy shot the glasses while Roxy, this time without regretting it, tossed her lighter grenade at them. A lot of crooks, along with their boss, were barely able to run for cover but that was all the Kingsmen needed.

Roxy and Eggsy jumped out of the window just as Roxy pressed another of the buttons in her purse while holding it above her head. A grappling hook shot out from one of the pockets of the bag and latched itself to the ceiling of the mansion.

Roxy's arms screamed in pain at having to hold both her weight and Eggsy's, who was grabbing onto her for dear life. Despite his starved state, Galahad still had a good 15 kg on her; the descend was thankfully a short one.

The chaos over the explosion was already noticeable as Eggsy and Roxy ran for the bushes near while she yelled into her glasses. "Lancelot reporting! Extraction complete! Repeat! Extraction complete!"

A couple of minutes later, and just when some of the trenchcoat-clad henchmen were pooling out of the door and going towards them, the black taxi that Roxy had arrived in came from the parking lot. The support agent (a friend of Amelia's whose name Roxy couldn't recall at the moment) jumped from the car and threw Eggsy in the back seat before entering again while Roxy sat shotgun.

The little taxi roared as it surged towards the night, a myriad of bullets bouncing off its bulletproof case and glass.

* * *

Hello guys, this will be my only Author's Note since I hate these things: this will be a story without story and I will just be depicting random missions and general slice of life of the Kingsman agents. A very episodic series of one-shots so to say.

Sometimes I might come up with a plot that lasts more than one chapter but that most likely won't be the rule.

The reason I'm writing this mostly is because I loved this goddamn movie to pieces and since it has left theaters in my city I can't keep rewatching until the Blu-ray disc is out, and since there isn't a forum or something similar, this is a way to keep close to this fantastic universe Vaughn and Millar have created.

Any commentary you have on my writing or plotting, however harsh, would be much appreciated. Now that I'm writing this, I might as well use it to improve my skills along the way.


	2. After Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day.

Merlin was flying the plane at top speed back to London, knowing what he would find but dreading it anyways. He thanked the two rookies onboard for having stopped what would have been an Apocalypse, but he was all too certain that the aftermath was already a terrible one. Some of the people who had been kidnapped by Valentine have had real trouble contacting anyone who could come pick them up to the mountain due to the riots that had disrupted communications and caused a significant amount of accidents in all forms of transportation. Luckily, though, most of the countries seemed to be still in good enough shape to send rescue missions for the surviving politicians. Merlin pitied those people, they had gone against Valentine's daft plan and now they were the ones who had to pick up the mess; they had to deal with all the broken families and the riots that were sure to unfold once word of what had happened spread out. Few people would be happy knowing that their leaders had consented to have them all slaughtered by their fellow civilians. And this was assuming that the innocent world leaders and other VIPs weren't flat out accused and killed by rebels. The situation seemed bleak, but all he could do now was trying to keep the agency that have prevented complete extinction from also crumbling apart.

The Kingsman agency was composed by Arthur (the leader), Merlin (mission control and technical support), the ten field agents (the Kingsmen); and all of the support staff (including people like Amelia), who were only partially aware of what Kingsman actually did. Only the twelve members who sat at the table, although Merlin rarely actually sat, had voice and vote for anything regarding the agency's operation. Arthur was the one who ultimately called the shots but he could only do it from the pool of ideas that all of them had already proposed together. In addition, the field agents had free reign to carry their missions however they saw fit, even doing operations on the side, as long as such operations contributed to their current mission.

The Kingsmen were replaced upon death or retirement from a pool of candidates proposed by Arthur and the remaining agents. Arthur and Merlin themselves could only be replaced by one of the acting ten agents, whose replacement was then searched from a pool of candidates as if they had retired. For these reasons Merlin couldn't become Arthur and viceversa. Merlin participated in the process by training the recruits and by selecting the support agent who would be inserted among the recruits for the usual intimidation tactic.

For now, as far as they knew, the Kingsman agency only consisted of Merlin and the two agents on the plane. Eggsy had been officially invested as Galahad by Merlin as soon as they had picked up Lancelot. The total of two votes had been unanimous in that he deserved the position after what he had done at Valentine's base.

After she dropped her HALO suit for more comfortable clothes, Roxy sat at the workstation to confirm the status of the remaining agents. Under Merlin's instructions, she started contacting the other Kingsmen while Eggsy slept on one of the seats, drooling all over it. She couldn't condemn him wanting some rest after what he had done and she was sure Merlin shared her view.

The first Kingsman she called was her mentor, Percival. Roxy breathed a sigh of relief she didn't know she had been holding when he answered almost immediately.

"You know I am in the middle of an infiltration, Merlin. I hope there's a good reason for you to risk my position by contacting me."

Now this she hadn't been expecting, she was sure everyone would be picking up confused and scared. She took a moment to gather her thoughts before answering.

"This isn't Merlin. Lancelot speaking."

"Lancelot? What? But how did you reach me and why are you calling me? Shouldn't Merlin be fitting your for your equipment and everything else?" He asked, a small trace of pride in his voice Roxy couldn't help but smile at.

"Yeah, we should be on that, but I'm sorry to inform you that we were sidetracked to stop an apocalypse."

He was silent for a few seconds. "What?"

"Yeah, right now I can't tell you everything because the lines could be compromised. First of all, I need to confirm your position."

"Near Syria's border, about to cross the Jordan river. Part of my mission."

"Which means you aren't near any populated settlement. That explains it."

"No, I'm not, why is that important?" He asked, sounding befuddled. If only he knew.

"I'm sorry, Percival. I can't tell you everything right now, Merlin asked me to inform each of you that he's holding a meeting as soon as we reach London where you will be properly debriefed. As for now, you should stay hidden and keep as little contact to anyone else as possible."

"Copy that, I'll keep radio silence then. And, Roxy" he whispered her real name "take care".

"You too, Charles." She answered, also in a whisper, before closing the connection.

Caradoc didn't answer, Roxy tried pinging his glasses directly but they were unreachable. This meant they had been destroyed or somehow disconnected and she hoped it hadn't been because his head had exploded. Deciding that there wasn't much more she could do about him, she flagged him as Missing. Afterwards she called Dinadan just to receive no answer either. His glasses did receive the ping, however. Feeling uneasy, she connected the video feed.

It was just the open sky -which didn't help with her unease-. She steeled herself before playing the last recording of the glasses.

It was horrifying, he had been killing people left and right before someone managed to get the drop on him from the side and stabbed him with a huge knife right through his abdomen. She couldn't even imagine what he must have thought given that the injury didn't stop him. In his rage, Dinadan simply had removed the knife himself and used it to stab back his killer. He had tried to continue afterwards but his injuries got the better of him and he collapsed on his back, staring at the sky the glasses were now transmitting. Roxy blinked away tears before marking his location and activating the short circuit mechanism of the glasses. The last thing they needed was someone using them to track HQ down.

She inhaled deeply before contacting Hywel.

"For all that is holy, Merlin, what is happening?!" Came the rushed answer. There amount of noise in the background indicated that he was near a very crowded area.

"Lancelot here, Hywel."

"Lancelot? The girl? Oh god, don't tell me we've lost Merlin too."

"No. God, no. I'm on a plane that Merlin is flying to London. He asked me to contact every Kingsman individually to find out each one's status and debrief them on the situation."

"Well, about time. All I know so far is that the cellphones of most of these people started acting out and all of a sudden everyone went crazy. I… " he choked a little bit. "I killed a dozen people, I don't even know why I did it. A lot of people in here are scared, the ones holding it together are helping me out with picking up bodies."

"Yes, Hywel, I understand. We know exactly what happened and you can be certain that Galahad, Merlin and I have made sure the event can't continue. Right now…"

"Galahad? But wasn't he killed yesterday on a mission?"

"Yes, he died. I believe you don't know the circumstances of his death…"

"We don't. Now that you mention it, Arthur didn't say much about it." He interrupted.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. As I was saying, the circumstances of his death are closely tied with the events that have just unfolded. Merlin and I had to recruit an immediate replacement who could assist us with stopping this catastrophe. Merlin will contact all of you as soon as we reach London for a formal debriefing. Right now we can't be sure how safe this line of communication is, specially if you're not alone. You're free to continue trying to help those people if you want, but Merlin's advice is to keep hidden and silent."

"Copy that, I'm glad you're still out there and I'll be waiting for the meeting, then. Hywel out."

Five Kingsmen, including Merlin, alive so far, and there were still four left to contact. She hoped there hadn't been any more victims.

She almost got her wish. Sagramore's glasses were underwater in the Seine river near Paris and his last unencrypted recording showed him alive with nothing amiss. The best they could do about him was recovering his glasses and trying to find if they held any encrypted or unsent message. The other three Kingsmen seemed to be fine. Tristan and Bors were in Hywel's situation while Ywain was far from anyone like Percival.

Given the current circumstances and that one of the remaining agents had to take Arthur's position, the agency might need to replace two to four Kingsmen. She gave the news to Merlin and, to her surprise, he answered that three casualties was more or less what he was expecting. After she informed him of the status of every surviving Kingsman, the last recorded location of the two missing, and the location of the only one confirmed dead; he thanked her for her effort and told her, to her utmost gratitude, that she should get some rest before the meeting.

* * *

After what seemed like just a few minutes, Merlin woke them up and told them to wash themselves before the meeting. Since Roxy didn't have a proper Kingsman outfit yet and Eggsy's was completely ruined, they opted to dress in their training siren suits before joining Merlin at the table. He was sitting in the usual Merlin seat opposite Arthur's, which was empty for now. Eggsy took the one to the left of Arthur and across Percival -the usual for Galahad- while Roxy sat in Lancelot's seat at Percival's left. At Merlin's command they all put their glasses on.

As it turned out they needn't worry about their looks because the only one who actually looked like a Kingsman should, right now, was Ywain. Percival was dressed in a thawb, Merlin still had on his pilot outfit and Bors', Hywel's and Tristan's suits were messed up.

"Lady and gentlemen." Merlin started, somberly. "I'm sorry to inform you that Dinadan has been confirmed dead and Caradoc and Sagramore are currently missing."

"God. A lot of Kingsmen have died lately." Interjected Ywain. "What is happening, Merlin? Is someone directly targeting the agency?"

"Worrying as it is, I wish it were so, Ywain. That would imply we have a direct enemy that we can defend against; but the reality is much worse. I'll start by telling you the real circumstances of Harry Hart's death." At the mention of his mentor's name Eggsy stiffened while he looked directly at the table, avoiding everyone's eyes which he knew were on him because he was sitting at Harry's chair.

The tension didn't go unnoticed to Merlin, but he ignored it. He swiftly informed all of the Kingsmen about Valentine's plan and, after answering their questions, he mentioned how Eggsy had come in second place for Lancelot's seat, how he had been in Harry's house when he died and how he had reached out to Arthur after the fact.

"Then Eggsy realized Arthur was compromised, found out about the rest of Valentine's plan and his motivations, and dispatched of Arthur."

"Hold on, " interrupted Hywel. "This kid killed Arthur?"

"Arthur tried to poison me using his QE pen, I switched the glasses when I noticed he had the same scar as everyone Valentine had approached." Eggsy pointed out.

Merlin nodded and talked before any of the other Kingsmen could delay the conversation. "The fact of the matter is that Arthur betrayed us and renounced what Kingsman stands for. Thanks to Eggsy we realized on time the full extent of Valentine's plans."

"That's good and all." Agreed Tristan. "But why is he sitting at Galahad's seat?"

"After he relayed his findings to Lancelot and me, I decided that the two of us wouldn't be enough to stop Valentine so I recruited him for the mission. I couldn't risk contacting anyone else because I couldn't be sure who else would be compromised." An air of somber agreement went through the table upon hearing this. It was clear that none of them would have risked contacting anyone else either. "And I turned out to be right. If it weren't for Eggsy, the mission would have failed and we, along with the rest of the world, would be dead. After he killed Valentine and we regrouped with Lancelot, she and I decided to officially invest him as Galahad's replacement. He proved himself an invaluable asset for the agency."

Eggsy blushed a little while Merlin praised him. The other agents asked for more details about the mission in order to know the full extent to which Eggsy had helped. After Merlin told them everything, skipping his encounter with Princess Tilde, they all agreed that he had earned his seat at the table.

"Indeed," Merlin concluded. "Harry himself wouldn't have done better."

"Thanks, Merlin, and you all." Beamed Eggsy.

"Let's not celebrate just now." Interjected Roxy, she smiled at Eggsy before her face turned serious again. "There are terrible things happening right now and I think Bors, Hywel and Tristan are more up to date on that."

All three agents took turns to describe their, similar, situations and proceeded to ask more questions to Merlin about how it had happened. Till now Merlin had been sparse on the details of Valentine's weapon. After a moment he explained it all to them, including the activation of the security chips and how that had caused the deaths of many world leaders. Eggsy suspected that Merlin had wanted to know the reach of the damage caused by Valentine, and themselves, before sharing how it had been done.

"So, as you all must be thinking." Merlin finished after giving the details. "We can expect a lot of riots and international unrest. I wouldn't be surprised if the political maps have to be redrawn, drastically. I think that the missions you are carrying out have now become secondary or even unnecessary since it's very likely that some of the organizations you are investigating might have collapsed."

"What do you suggest?" Asked Percival.

"I think we should regroup at the London headquarters. I will be gathering as much information as I can of what is happening around the world to discuss with you as soon as you all arrive here. Then we should choose a new Arthur, recover Dinadan's body and search for Sagramore and Caradoc. Once we have confirmed their fates we should start the process of refilling the empty seats. By then I think I will have enough intel to decide what crisis we should attend first. And let's not forget to contact the support staff we might still have. Any objections or other suggestions?" Merlin had been clinical in describing his course of action but nobody failed to notice his stressed state. They couldn't judge since they all felt on edge as well.

"None." Came seven different voices simultaneously.

"Unanimous then. I expect you." He nodded to each Kingsman attending remotely. "To be here by midnight tomorrow at the latest. In case you find a problem with transportation, please report immediately. Dismissed."

Everyone took off their glasses before Eggsy and Roxy turned to Merlin.

"What are we to do, then?" Asked Lancelot. She seemed hesitant.

"I know that you want to check on your families and you're free to do that. This is the location of the safe houses you have been assigned to and you're free to move your families there if you don't like the current situation. You have been in yours already Eggsy because it used to belong to Harry. However", he added, "as soon as you have done what you think is best I expect you back here immediately. You're now Kingsmen and you know what that implies. The world needs us now more than ever. Lancelot, you took your vows already. Galahad, I expect you to do the same as soon as a new Arthur is chosen."

Eggsy and Roxy stood at attention and said in unison: "Understood."


	3. The Kingsmen of the Square Table, Part 1

Three days after Valentine's

There were good news and bad news.

The good news were that most armies had been less affected by Valentine than Merlin had thought. Apparently, most soldiers were not so keen to get in line for a sim card and most of the world leaders who had bought into Valentine's ideas didn't actually want their armies wiped out, meaning that most military powers in the world were still mostly intact, with just a few isolated melees. This meant that the surviving politicians had more to work with, although the problem of army generals deciding to rebel and take over was still present and it had already happened in several smaller countries.

The real problem were the civilians. Around 600 million people had been confirmed dead as direct casualties of Valentine's signal; but the complete number could still be much higher. To make matters worse, some of the freed VIPs had, like it had been expected, let their mouths run and talked about Valentine and the dead leaders. Riots were starting all over the World and even major military powers were having trouble containing the chaos. Most countries' governments couldn't be said to control the entirety of their territories.

In the Kingsmen's minds, the most immediate danger was of rebel groups seizing nuclear missile silos or biological weapons that they could unleash upon whomever they wanted. Merlin had been busy contacting governments -or what remained of them- of the most powerful countries, making sure they tried to keep their weapons safe.

Some countries were doing better than others. The popularity of Princess Tilde, for example, and the fact that she was following Kingsman's instructions to the letter had helped in keeping Sweden mostly in order and the other scandinavian countries seemed to follow suit. Great Britain was, likewise, holding it together thanks to the fact that the Prime Minister had been among the ones who had survived and the People's sympathy for the orphaned infant King. The general sentiment among British people was that their government hadn't completely left them to their own devices.

Eggsy hadn't been surprised, he knew things in England couldn't be as bad given that even inherently violent people like Dean and his crooks had survived. It had felt awesome kicking his ass and his two crooks' who had been foolish enough to challenge Eggsy. The other two had surrendered without putting a fight; they had learned Harry's lesson.

In the grimmer side of things, the USA, among others, was almost in the border of full scale civil war because some of the factions of their army that had actually suffered Valentine's attack were vying for a segregation. And then there were the surviving criminal organizations across the world, some of them had taken advantage of the chaos and started merging, forming their own militias in order to take the opportunity to form their own nations.

In the bittersweet state of affairs, the Kingsman organization was also in a recovery process. They had lost a lot of support staff to the melees and many offices had been wrecked. Amelia and others had taken charge and, under Merlin's instructions, had been doing an organized dismantling of every office that wasn't already destroyed. It was fairly pointless to spread themselves so thin, specially with the current political state across the world, so it was decided that they would operate, for now, from HQ and aid in whatever they could across the world from there. Once things calmed down they would reestablish a more direct contact with the biggest intelligence agencies; or at least whatever remained of them. Besides, in HQ everyone would be safer, away from any riots.

All of the Kingsmen had returned safely to HQ and they all had their necks checked in case any of them had been implanted with Valentine's chip. Since Valentine wouldn't have left alive and free anyone who refused him, it was clear that they hadn't been contacted and were, thus, innocent. Eggsy had proposed to make them go through a lie detector to find if any of them might have agreed with Valentine had they been approached; Roxy had been onboard with it. Merlin refused, though, saying that they couldn't spare more agents just out of hypothetical betrayal and that everyone was innocent until proven otherwise. The younger agents had relented, albeit reluctantly.

They were now all sitting at the table in person. Everyone impeccably dressed, even Roxy, whose suit had been ready two days before. It wasn't exactly the same as the suits the other Kingsmen wore; Roxy's was a female suit that looked simple and comfortable but still classy; it was clear that the Kingsman tailors weren't used to make clothing for women, but they had made a surprisingly detailed job nevertheless. Eggsy had to admit that the look suited her well and caught himself staring at Roxy every now and then during the meeting. He wondered if ogling girls was proper from a gentleman or not, but didn't have much time to duel on it before Merlin started the meeting.

"Welcome all, I'm glad we are all here now, safe and sound. In the first order of business I'll inform you that the other agents have already started the dismantling of their offices and will all relocate to HQ during the following weeks. Unfortunately our organization is down to sixty two people, but I'll admit that I had been dreading a more serious impact."

He continued on with a quick summary of the international state of affairs and how they could afford to lay low for a time, while they reorganized the agency. "Which leads us to the next order of business: choosing the next Arthur." Continued the agent. "As Merlin, it is my duty to make the first vote which will give you an idea in how to vote yourselves. But, before, please remember that one can't vote for oneself." He took a moment to survey the table and every single agent sitting there. All of the senior agents looked nonchalant and relaxed. Roxy felt a little uncomfortable when Merlin's eyes surveyed her while Eggsy was downright alarmed when Merlin seemed to linger on him a little longer. After a pause, Merlin smirked at Eggsy before speaking again. "My vote goes to Percival, I think he has provided a great service to our agency, and the world, and will be an adequate leader moving forward." Percival smiled and thanked Merlin for his kind words. "As per standard now we vote in alphabetical order. Bors, if you mind."

"Thank you, Merlin. My vote goes to Ywain. He's the most experienced among us in diplomatic affairs and that will be a good asset for him as a leader."

Ywain politely thanked Bors and then it was Eggsy's turn. "I... I... vote for... ahm, I'm sorry I'm not sure of what to say here, I think any of you could be good... " He felt like a deer in the headlights, everyone was staring at him and he had no idea what to say, he didn't know any of these people. For a fleeting moment he considered voting for Roxy before he decided to just follow Merlin's lead. Plus Percival was the only one besides Harry, Merlin and Arthur he had seen in person. "I suppose I vote for Percival? If Merlin thinks it should be you then I agree." He concluded lamely.

Percival smiled, Eggsy was sure it was more for the younger agent's benefit, to make him feel at ease, than of any actual gratitude. "Thank you, Galahad."

Hywel stood up and said. "I vote for Tristan. I've been considering it and, after Arthur's debacle, we need someone a little more in touch with the times and Tristan might be that person."

Tristan thanked him before Roxy stood up and voted for Percival. "He's my mentor and I think him more than capable of leading us in these difficult times."

Eggsy wished he was half as eloquent as Roxy; what he didn't know was that Roxy had been rehearsing that little line for two days and her nerves almost made her choke anyways.

After Percival thanked Roxy, it was his turn and he voted for Ywain, giving a similar reason to Bors's. Ywain thanked him and, shortly after, thanked Tristan too, as he also voted for him.

Ywain stood up. "We have a tie as it is. Matters are too pressing to mull this thing over for too long so my vote goes to Percival. My congratulations, Arthur." He smiled before sitting down again while Percival stood back up.

"I thank you all for this vote of confidence. I promise you I will do my best in rebuilding the agency and make it even more efficient than before, specially given the state the world is right now." There was a small round of applause after which Percival, now Arthur, sat at the head of the table. He nodded to Merlin, who nodded back before standing up.

"Thank you, Arthur, and congratulations. As per usual, we will need proposals from all of you in order to fill Percival's seat. Before continuing, I believe Galahad is yet to make his vows." He stared pointedly at Eggsy, who stood up and recited to Arthur the guidelines of Kingsman that he had memorized over the past few days. Arthur nodded and officially accepted him as the new Galahad. Eggsy smiled and thanked everyone, eliciting a second small round of applause.

"Now the most pressing matter." Continued Merlin. "Recovering Dinadan's body and tracking Caradoc and Sagramore. I have all the latest intel we have on the matter. Glasses on, please."

He used the screen to make a fast rundown of the three missing agents' last locations and transmissions. After all the pertinent questions were answered, Arthur assigned Ywain to recover Dinadan, Roxy to track down Sagramore and Eggsy to track down Caradoc.

"Well, this meeting has been productive." Resumed Merlin. "Since we don't need to replace only Percival I ask you to please bring recruits for the selection of Dinadan too. Until we find Caradoc and Sagramore, this is the best we can do. Also, while Ywain, Galahad and Lancelot are out, there's a lot of logistic work to be done here and I'll appreciate any help." He said this while surveying the table again. His intense stare worked and Bors, Hywel and Tristan offered immediately. Arthur agreed to the decision and the meeting officially ended.

Ywain, Lancelot and Galahad followed Merlin into the computer lab for debriefing while the other three agents stayed with Arthur. Dinadan had died in Moscow and everything was arranged for Ywain to leave immediately, which he did. Flying to Paris wasn't a problem either and Roxy left after organizing her equipment. The problem was for Eggsy, since Caradoc's last location had been recorded in the USA, near Los Angeles, and due to the current state of the country getting a clean itinerary proved to be more difficult. Merlin ultimately told Eggsy that he could go say goodbye to his family while he prepared his trip.

"Thanks Merlin, but I need to tell you something first." He waited until Merlin nodded before continuing. "I can't think of anyone who might be Kingsman material just now so I don't know how I'm going to propose two candidates."

"Don't worry about it Eggsy. As a matter of fact, a selection process in which every agent proposes someone is quite rare. Even for Lancelot, Bors and Hywel didn't have proposals. There won't be a problem with you skipping these ones."

"Thank you, Merlin. I'll be waiting for you to tell me when I'll be crossing the pond, then. See you."

"Very well, Galahad. I'll let you know as soon as I clear a safe landing point."

Eggsy arrived at Harry's old house to find his baby sister in the small living room watching cartoons while his mother was in the kitchen. He told his mother about his trip and how he'd be back in a couple of days and spend the next few hours playing with his sister and JB.

Around 7 PM Merlin finally called, telling him that everything was ready. Eggsy bid goodbye to his family before going back to the shop where he was debriefed one final time before leaving for America in one of Kingsman's private jets.

The flight was swift and uneventful. It was a good thing that Kingsman had the best and fastest planes, otherwise he'd have been bored out of his mind. The next morning after arriving at Los Angeles, he went to the exact location recorded by Caradoc's glasses. It turned out to be a highway leading out of the city.

"Merlin, this is weird. I'm in the middle of a highway, my equipment isn't reporting anything and there's no sign of struggle of any kind. Whatever happened here it will be more difficult to find out than we thought."

"Understood, Galahad. Search for the glasses, they might have been broken and left around there."

"Roger that."

Eggsy spend the next few hours scanning the area for any sign of Kingsman equipment that might have been left around. He was starting to get desperate when he finally found something. It wasn't the glasses; but something was definitely amiss in one section: a patch of ground had clear borders. He knelt down to clean it and, to his complete astonishment, he found a trapdoor. For a moment he was tempted to open it but he stopped himself on time. If whatever was down there was blocking the communication of Kingsman, it must have been a special facility and trying to open it might only succeed in alerting them of an intruder.

He was considering his options when, all of a sudden, armed men emerged out of the ground twenty meters at his three o'clock. He had given up his position after all, which only meant that whatever was down there was very secured.

"Hey, what are you doing there? This area is closed." Asked one of the men, with his assault rifle trained at Eggsy's head. Eggsy tried his best to look scared and confused while holding his hands above his head. He was thankful he had decided to go undercover for this, foregoing his suit -that he had in his backpack along with most of his gadgets- and wearing civilian clothes instead. He still had his umbrella by his side; but a bulletproof umbrella would have telegraphed that a spy was onto them.

"I'm surry, dude." He tested his American accent. "It's just that I lost my dog the other day during the shit that happened and I've been looking for it. I didn't mean to mess with the army, I'll be going."

The man surveyed Eggsy for a moment and then turned to the others. They thought Eggsy couldn't hear them, which he didn't, but his earpiece could.

"What do you think, fellas, I don't think this guy is lying."

"Me neither, and the surveillance cameras showed him looking for something, probably his dog's body."

"Yeah, but I don't think we should let him go just yet. The guy seems in good shape and the boss said we needed more people."

The guy who seemed in charged turned to Eggsy again. Eggsy pretended to have been distracted until the guy addressed him.

"Hey, you seem like a strong fella, have you ever been interested in joining "the army"?" The way he said 'army' made it clear that these guys didn't belong to any actual army, but Eggsy played along and took his chance.

"Buddy, everyone died where I used to work, if you're offering me a job, I'm taking it."

The mercenary -Eggsy wasn't sure that's what these guys were, but until confirmed otherwise that's how he was going to describe them - smirked and told Eggsy to join them. They flanked him before they all descended into a second, bigger, trapdoor.


	4. The Kingsmen of the Square Table, Part 2

February 17, 2015. Four days after Valentine's.

The hallway was dark. Although there were quite a bit of fluorescent lamps every 30 meters or so, a lot of them weren't working, leaving long patches of darkness. "_Good_".

Eggsy had been savvy enough to subtly turn on the night vision of his glasses before going in and so far he hadn't detected any cameras. This was seemingly an abandoned facility that had been repurposed in a hurry. "_Even better"_.

The moment the guards started talking among themselves again Eggsy made his move. He forcefully grabbed the barrel of the leader's rifle and pulled it back forcefully, hitting him square in the nose with it. The guy let out a strangled scream before falling on his back, grabbing his face. Without missing a beat Eggsy hit another of his escorts using the handle of his umbrella, which they had been too stupid to take from him, and with the recoil of the hit he stabbed the third with the end of the parasol. He then made a wall run upwards, narrowly avoiding a shot, and used the momentum to kick the fourth man across the face. By this point the final guard just ran for it, shooting wildly towards Eggsy. Galahad barely had enough time to open his umbrella and fire a stun round that hit the retreating guard on the back of his head, knocking him out cold.

"Well, this wasn't too bad." It was just then he noticed that he couldn't establish contact with Merlin, whatever was here was indeed cutting the Kingsman private signal.

He didn't have much time to mull over it, though, and proceeded to tie four of the injured men -he left the one who he had kicked in the face alone, grabbing his left cheek and groaning- with special robe Merlin had given him. It was a pretty nifty tool, no heavier or thicker than nylon but almost as hard as diamond, which meant that they weren't cutting it any time soon.

Once he was done, Eggsy grabbed the arm of the guy he hadn't tied and made him stand up while keeping him in an arm lock before pointing his gun at the leader, who was just looking at him through the blood all over his face, completely dumbfounded. It was obvious none of them understood what had just transpired.

"Ok, bruvs. Now you're going to be good boys and will tell me what is this place and who is in charge, yeh?"

"What the fuck? Who are you?" Asked the one he had hit with the end of the umbrella. Eggsy hadn't expected the end of his weapon to be so sharp as he actually had punctured the guy's skin, but he'd live.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you but it doesn't matter since I'm the one asking the questions here." He said before kicking the guy's shin. "Now speak." He continued, addressing the leader.

"Look fella, we're just drug dealers. After everyone tried to kill each other our boss told us that drugs no longer mattered and we had to defend ourselves because the world had gone to shit and it was a free for all now."

Eggsy blinked twice before asking. "And you believed that bullshit?"

"After what happened, I'd believe that it was the Second Coming, dude."

Eggsy caught sound further down the hall with his earpiece, he didn't have much time. "And who is this guy? And if he's a drug dealer, how did he get all these weapons?"

"I don't know much, man, I'm just guarding the door. But... " He continued after Eggsy made a threatening gesture with his gun. "His name is Miles Walters; and about the weapons, some guy in a fancy suit came over two days ago and lead us here. This was an army bunker that was caught in all that happened. We spent the last two days burying dead soldiers. They almost destroyed the place, but the survivors gave us guns."

"Fancy suit...?" Eggsy didn't have time to finish his question before three more guards reached their position. Eggsy hid behind the guard he had arm-locked and, pressing his gun against the guard's back, pushed him forward.

"Hey, Brant, what the hell was all that n...?" The man in soldier uniform noticed Eggsy behind Brant's back and immediately shot him, Brant. Eggsy, on reflex, jumped back, reopened his umbrella and fired three shotgun rounds. He had better vision and thus all three were hits. The three mean collapsed but the soldier tried a few more shots before finally succumbing to his wound.

Eggsy asked the leader of the first group of guards how many people were in the bunker -around sixty- before considering his options.

He could head back outside and discuss the situation with Merlin but that would risk the opportunity to go further undercover. The last intel he had on the American government was that they were trying their best to unite the factions of the army that remained loyal in order to prevent a civil war. In part Eggsy couldn't help but sympathize with the rebel cells, they must feel like they had been abandoned by their leaders. But, on the other hand and as far as he was concerned, what remained of the government were decent people by virtue of being alive. Also, a civil war would just lead to more bloodshed and enough blood had already been spilled by Valentine. Plus, even if some of the factions vying for a segregation were righteous in their goals, these people in particular had no qualms on sacrificing one of their own, which meant that, whoever they were, they didn't care about any lofty goals.

In his full prerogative as a field Kingsman, he decided to continue undercover. He also hoped that what the guard had told him about the guy in a fancy suit wasn't what he was fearing. That would make the mission ten times as hard.

* * *

It was a good thing that most of the guards were dressed as civilians because he was wearing his favorite shoes with wings and it would have killed him to leave those behind. He just stashed his standard gun in his backpack again and grabbed the soldier's assault rifle, still keeping his trustworthy umbrella at his side.

He walked twenty minutes until he arrived at an open door and went in. There were several people walking around, carrying ammo, guns and supplies. In the field below some were exercising. It was clear that these men -and there were mostly men- were preparing for battle.

Thankfully, nobody paid him much attention. It was obvious that nobody knew everyone here and thus they couldn't tell if a face was a stranger's or not and, thus, he was able to go through every room unnoticed.

There were mostly bedrooms besides a shooting range, a large dining room, a big open field for exercising, a kitchen and cellars were they kept the supplies. After an hour he had already gone through almost the entire facility. There were twenty-four soldiers and thirty-one men in civilian clothes. Most of them carried guns of different issue. They were fairly organized, which intrigued Eggsy since he hadn't come across anything that resembled leadership and couldn't find offices anywhere.

After twenty more minutes of fruitless search he was about to ask one of the civilians where the "boss" was when he heard a voice through the loudspeakers.

"Everyone! Every one of you to the training field, now!"

He doubted for a split second before going to the field, still pretending to be one of the civilian recruits.

"Everyone! We have an intruder." Said a large man standing atop a platform surveying the field and in the wall opposite the door. He was dressed in uniform, but the clothes were so mismatched Eggsy was sure the man wasn't really a soldier. He must have been Miles Walters, the drug lord trying to raise his own army. To Walters's left was another man in uniform, this one perfectly dressed. He must have been the highest ranking officer in the bunker who had survived. It was when Eggsy noticed the man to the right of Walters that his mouth dropped.

Impeccably dressed in a Kingsman suit, with an umbrella exactly like Eggsy's by his right hand, was Caradoc. Eggsy cursed internally and quickly hid his umbrella behind his back and covered his face a little bit more with his cap just before Caradoc's eyes landed on him. Caradoc didn't seem to pay him much heed and his gaze went over to the next man at Eggsy's left. That had been close.

_"Right now would be a very good time to break whatever Caradoc is doing to block you, Merlin." _Thought Eggsy, completely at a loss.

"That piece of shit killed four men and left the other four tied up. They said they can't remember anything. That's the reason our good Matthew here. " He said, gesturing at Caradoc. "Said he could be a member of his agency on our tail, which makes him very dangerous." Eggsy was edging closer to the nearest door. "Fortunately, one of the cameras was still running, in a moment we'll know how that bastard looks like. For now, we must all stay here."

_"Fuck" _Eggsy thought, but he was lucky enough that everyone started talking simultaneously. He used the confusion to steal into the bedroom the door lead to.

Knowing he didn't have much time, he shed his clothes and put on his suit. His cover would soon be blown anyways and he needed as much protection as possible. He folded his civilian clothes carefully and put them in his backpack with his adidas before taking out and going over all his gadgets, which he then hid in his suit's different pockets. He left the backpack under the bed and approached the door, listening intently, one of his standard guns at the ready.

Everyone calmed down after a moment or two and then a different voice spoke with an irish accent, Caradoc.

"The intruder is a young man, light brown hair, about 1.78 meters -that's five feet, ten inches in your system- and green eyes. When the footage was taken he was wearing a green baseball cap, a light blue adidas jacket, jeans and white shoes. However, he might have switched his outfit in order to throw us off so it's better if you go by his physical description.

"Mr. Unwin. Yes, I know your name, Wallace wasn't the only one of us who knew his way around a computer, as you might have guessed by now since he can't reach you. I remember that you and miss Morton were the last ones in the running. If you're here I assume you're the new Lancelot."

The nonchalant way in which this guy was giving away the real names of his fellow Kingsmen was starting to piss Eggsy off, but he held it in. Soon enough he would have to fight everyone outside anyways.

"I suppose you're here in a rescue mission for me. Well, as you can see, I don't need any rescuing and you can't hope to win alone against me and sixty other armed men. Surrender yourself and I might consider giving you a position in the country that me and my associates will build."

Eggsy decided to abide his time and picked a small transmissor that he threw under the door with all the force he could muster. He then adjusted his earpiece and spoke. His voice echoed all around the room outside.

"That's a negative, Caradoc. And, if I may ask, what are you thinking of doing? Take down the entirety of the US army with sixty men?"

"These sixty men are just a contingent, my good man. All of the rebel cells are already being contacted and organized for a simultaneous strike against Washington, we don't need to take down the army if we can just cut its head. Really, there's no stopping this, son."

"How did you even come up with this idea? You're alive so you weren't in on Valentine's crap. Did the craziness of his signal just stick with you?"

"You're mistaken on two levels, my friend. Valentine did approach me, but his counter chip was fairly easy to remove. He was an idealistic moron who thought nobody would betray him and whose plan was so flimsy it would just collapse on itself, as it did.

"But it did give me a chance, his signal didn't 'stick' with me. I just knew what it would do and used it as an opportunity. Valentine was right on something: the world is going to hell. The solution, though, isn't killing innocent people. The solution is to lead them better, and who better than gentlemen like us, the Kingsmen? That is the reason I offer you a position by my side, Gary."

"That is Galahad to you, and I think I'll pass, bruv. Our job isn't to take over the world, our jobs is to make sure people live their lives as peacefully as possible and a civil war kind of goes against that." Eggsy went through an adjoining door that lead to the next bedroom while he was talking.

"Galahad? That must mean that Harry died. Well this is unexpected, if there's someone I never thought would buy into Valentine's ideals it would be him."

That insult enraged Eggsy so much that, before he knew what he was doing, he had his hand on the door, bent on going out to shoot Caradoc square in the face.

He stopped himself on time. First, he would probably miss since he'd have no time for aiming, he wouldn't get another shot and he'd just get himself killed. Besides, Caradoc was probably not there anymore; instead, he would be hiding with the rest of the leadership in case Eggsy tried a surprise attack. Hearing his voice all over the room might have freaked them out.

Eggsy breathed deeply and walked through the bedrooms again before answering. "Actually, he was killed by Valentine himself. You're deluding yourself, Caradoc. Merlin and other governments where the situations had been better are already providing support to Washington in order to deal with the mess."

"They are helping in what can be _expected_. They wouldn't expect a Kingsman to infiltrate the White House and murder the acting president and everyone else in there, and that is just one step of the plan, which I'm not about to tell you."

He knew that Caradoc was right about nobody even remotely expecting that, but he'd eat JB before admitting so.

Eggsy decided that he was already far enough from the field to go out to the hallway. He immediately had to shoot two men, but there was none else there. Once he was clear, he spoke again.

"Well in that case I'll just have to be, what do they say? A pain in your arse? Yeah, that.

"To everyone still around here. This man might have lied to you by telling you that you'll have important positions in his country. Those are lies, he only cares about his own good fortune. He betrayed an agency whose goal is to protect everyone in the world. What prevents him from betraying all of you too?

"I know you all think that your government tried to kill you. And while that might have been the case, those are just a few men, all of whom are dead now. The new government is trying to prevent a civil war from erupting. I know nobody wants any more bloodshed, Caradoc's friends already caused enough of that.

"For those of you psychos who do want more murder, if you're familiar with Caradoc, like I'm certain you are, then you know I have the capacity to kill every single one of you. And be sure that I'll do it, I shall sacrifice sixty people if that is what is needed to prevent a war that would kill millions."

He was nearing the source of the sound system in the base, according to his glasses.

"So I ask you nicely, please leave."

Through the speakers, Caradoc laughed. "Well that was quite the nice speech, Mr. Unwin. These men are not here against their will nor on false promises. I have no desire to take over the world. I just want it to be run by the people, not by more corrupts. Contrary to what you might think, the world before wasn't divided between Valentine's supporters and good people, Gary."

Eggsy winced. If he survived this, he would need quite a bit of amnesia shots if he wanted nobody to remember his name. But he couldn't worry about that now.

Once he reached the door, he prepared his umbrella and kicked it open. Caradoc and the high ranking officer were there, along with seven other men. The umbrella blocked the wave of gun fire. He decided that he would just do things quick and dirty and threw his lighter grenade into the room.

"Grenade! Take cover!" Screamed the officer.

The force of the blast was enough to destroy his umbrella and throw him back against the wall. Eggsy saw lights dancing in his eyes for a moment before recovering and standing back up. He was now face to face with Caradoc, who had his similarly wrecked umbrella in his hand.

The older agent threw the remains of the parasol to Eggsy before grabbing his guns. Galahad avoided the hit with a side roll and proceeded to take cover behind a corner before drawing his guns too. They were in a standstill for the moment. The explosion destroyed the sound system which meant that Caradoc couldn't call for aid and Eggsy was blocking his only way out. However, Eggsy didn't have much time, even if Caradoc didn't call for aid, that didn't rule out anyone coming out on their own accord and shooting at Eggsy's back.

Eggsy breathed in deeply for a second before doubling the corner again. Caradoc was not there, he was hiding in the ruins of the speaker room. Eggsy approached slowly and caught Caradoc's movement in the nick of time. He made two back rolls and another side roll to hide behind the corner again just a split second before Caradoc's grenade exploded. Eggsy felt paralyzed for a moment, it was the closest he'd been to dying since Valentine's henchmen had surrounded him. But now was not the time to dwell on it.

Knowing that Caradoc would think him dead, Eggsy made a side aerial while unloading his magazines towards the hallway. Caradoc barely had the time to cover his face with his arms before stumbling back. Taking his chance, Eggsy holstered his guns and charged.

Caradoc raised his guns but Eggsy grabbed and twisted his hands, forcing him to drop them. Not so easily deterred, though, Caradoc responded by headbutting Eggsy in the face. Eggsy tasted the blood and stumbled back, but recovered in time to kick Caradoc in the face just as he dived to retrieve one of his weapons. The older agent also spit blood and, foregoing his guns, jumped at Eggsy, trying to land a punch that Galahad dodged. Eggsy used the momentum of Caradoc's jump to throw him over his head just to receive a kick in the abdomen. Eggsy fell to his knees, arms over his stomach, while Caradoc averted his fall by doing a dive roll. The experience was showing his value, but Eggsy wouldn't give up so easily. He stood back up and dived at Caradoc, sweeping his leg to throw him off balance. This time Caradoc did fall awkwardly to the floor and Eggsy didn't miss the chance to straddle him and punch him across the face. As if on instinct, though, Caradoc kneed Eggsy in the back and threw him off.

While Caradoc had the experience, Eggsy had the advantage of youth and strength, the hits were piling on Caradoc more noticeably than on Eggsy. Both agents were winded and bloodied, but Eggsy recovered faster. He dived once again at Caradoc, who was a little too slow to react, and managed to kick him in the knee, breaking it. Caradoc howled in pain before collapsing. Eggsy fell on his butt and took a few seconds to recover his breath, momentarily relishing in his victory.

His rest was short lived, though, as he heard people approaching. He retrieved Caradoc's guns and aimed one at the older agent, who sputtered. "No! Please! Don't kill me, I was just infiltrating them, all of what I told you was just part of the show. Seriously, let me talk to Merlin! He'll clear it all up!"

Eggsy was so incensed at such bald faced lie that he couldn't even answer before shooting him. He then took cover and awaited for the reinforcements.

The trip back outside wasn't a pleasant one; as it turned out -although not surprisingly- most of the people that were in the bunker were, indeed, psychos and Walters was rallying them against Eggsy, who was forced to make good on his earlier promise. By the time he reached the exit, he had emptied Caradoc's guns and his spare magazines.

He found twenty people crowded next to the exit. They had tried to get out after Eggsy's speech only to find that the door had been locked. Caradoc didn't want anyone getting out and spilling the beans, after all. Eggsy saw the people there both as a signal that there was still some hope for the world and as a signal that his luck wasn't too bad after all. Having them all there would make it easier to shoot them with amnesia serum.

After Eggsy and Mark, the support agent who had driven his plane, took care of the survivors, they returned to London. On the way there, Eggsy gave Arthur and Merlin a detailed rundown on what had happened and was informed that Roxy had found Sagramore in the bottom of the Seine river, not far from his discarded glasses. Despite himself, Eggsy was glad that Sagramore hadn't turned out to be a traitor too.

Now that every missing agent was accounted for and a full scale civil war in the States seemed to be averted -at least for now- the search and training of the four new agents finally could start.


	5. Free Day

June 9, 2015

JB and Quentin were looking at their masters with mild interest from the side of the field.

"That's two against two, lunch is on whoever loses the next one." Said Roxy while giving Eggsy her hand and helping him stand up before she took her stance again.

"You're on." Agreed Eggsy as he positioned himself too.

He charged immediately, feinting a punch towards Roxy's right shoulder that she easily avoided before sweeping his leg to make her trip. She jumped back and then threw a kick right at his chest but he managed to parry her foot and went in to grab her, locking both her arms.

Not one to be deterred, Roxy stomped on his foot, making him yelp in pain. Not wasting a second, she shook him off and threw a punch right at his throat. He dodged it and then grabbed her waist before lifting her with the intention of throwing her over his head. She'd have none of it, though, and, with surprising flexibility, twisted on Eggsy's arm kneed him on his right thigh, forcing him to drop her.

"Whoa, a little to the left and you hit the jackpot." Said Eggsy after retreating a couple of steps and standing at the ready again.

"Charming, girls must fall for it all the time." Smirked Roxy, taking her stance too.

"You'd be surprised at how well it works on princesses."

Roxy resisted the urge to laugh out loud and dived in, going for a kick at his shin. He jumped to the side and made a downwards kick that would have gotten her square in the stomach if she hadn't rolled away. She then stood on her arms and threw another kick, but he once against parried her away. That, though, had been her intention and she used the momentum Eggsy gave her to jump back up and uppercut him.

He dodged and then took advantage of his larger frame to grab both of her arms, this time being careful of minding her legs. She surprised him again with a headbutt. Thankfully she didn't aim for his face because that could have done a lot of damange. She instead headbutted him on the chest, forcing him a couple of steps back.

When she went in for another punch to the throat, he dodged and this time didn't bother to arm lock her and instead just pushed her, sending her a few feet away. She dropped to the floor, but did a dive roll and was once again on her feet instantly.

This was their fifth match and both were very winded and covered in sweat. Neither of them was about to give up, though, Roxy had won the first and fourth while Eggsy had won the two in between. By this point they were already used to each other's rhythms and styles so they mostly just sparred to experiment new moves and practice them.

They were also used to hold back: they didn't aim for the face since they couldn't very well go on missions with bruises and neither used their full strength in the hits they did connect, specially Eggsy. Someone of his build could seriously hurt someone of Roxy's with just one well-placed hit. Nevertheless, he knew that all of the times Roxy had hit him could have hurt him a lot more if she had applied herself to it. Besides the size factor (which Roxy compensated by being much more flexible than Eggsy) they were pretty much evenly matched in skill and speed.

Both charged once again and this time Eggsy surprised Roxy by feinting a kick before landing a punch on her shoulder. She yelped in pain but this time it was she who grabbed his arm. Eggsy was confused for a second at her intention before she applied her whole weight to his arm, bringing him to the floor with her. On instinct, he grabbed her arm and rolled them both, trying to get on top but she just used the momentum of his roll to squish away and stand up, going for a stomp on his abdomen immediately afterwards. Once again he surprised her by bracing the kick (grabbing the foot with both his hands) instead of dodging, he twisted her leg and threw her off balance before jumping back up.

Before he could do anything she was back on her feet again. He went for a sweeping kick that she simply ducked before punching his leg. He stumbled a few feet back and barely had the time to move away from her high kick. He tried grabbing her waist for a second time but she seemed to have been expecting this since she immediately grabbed his shoulders and pushed herself upwards, putting both her feet on his chest. He barely had the time to land a punch on her left leg before she completed her move: stretching her legs to use her full weight in order to throw him to the floor.

He fell with a groan, but his punch had accomplished his purpose: throwing her off balance and to make her fall awkwardly on her back, which hadn't been her intention.

"Oof" exclaimed Roxy, as the fall had cut her breathing for a second.

"Oww" whimpered Eggsy, rubbing his chest where she had made the double kick.

"Well, I guess this is a tie, then." Said Roxy after she managed to get her breath back.

"It seems so." Agreed Eggsy, still on the floor too.

After a while, and with more than a bit of effort, they managed to stand up and went for their towels, next to where their dogs had been watching them.

"I'm going to wash up and then I think I'll hit the shooting range, you?" Asked Roxy, rubbing her face with her towel.

"I think I'll rest for a bit here and then do some lifting. Catch you for lunch?"

"Sure." Answered Roxy while walking towards the dormitories, followed by her poodle.

Just as Roxy closed the door another one opened and in came two young men, the final candidates for Percival's seat. One a former soldier of the chinese army by the name of Bolin Zhang who had been acting as Ywain's contact in his latest mission in China during V-Day. They had been in a remote area trying to find the headquarters of a rebellious group who could have access to nuclear weapons when the catastrophe happened. Ywain had proposed him based on his attitude and skill. Bolin was 25 and had excelled particularly in weapons and observation.

The other man was a 24-year-old ex-cop from Istanbul named Vahid Parlak. He had helped Hywel tremendously in dealing with the immediate aftermath of the massacre. He had excelled, oddly enough, both in physical performance and in dealing with technology. Eggsy was fairly certain that, even if Bolin beat him, Merlin would recruit him for the IT staff.

That wasn't saying much, though, since all of four of the eliminated recruits -Roxy had surprised everyone by proposing a friend of hers- had been hired for support anyways due to the fact that the agency was still very understaffed. The process for the new Percival had moved much faster than the last one for Lancelot, in part due to the smaller number of recruits and in part because Arthur said that it could only last five months, tops, as they needed to have completed the table again by the end of next year. "There is exceedingly too much to do", he had said in their last meeting.

Eggsy could attest to that, he had only had time to visit his family three times in the four months he had been a Kingsman because Arthur and Merlin needed all the agents, who weren't already on mission, in the mansion at all times for immediate dispatching if so required. Although he wished he could see his mother and sister more often, he couldn't complain. Whenever he was on mission he was so on edge over the immediate danger he couldn't think of anything else and whenever he was in the mansion he procured to train as much as possible to hone his skills. Whatever that could keep his mind occupied because, when his thoughts were clear, they were always about Harry... and with those thoughts came nightmares. It was only when he was so exhausted that he couldn't move that he could get a good night's sleep.

Eggsy's divagations were interrupted by the two recruits, who approached him to ask him questions about the agency. They were encouraged to interact with members of the staff, specially Kingsmen, as much as possible but the Kingsmen themselves were strictly forbidden from sharing more than the basest information about the agency, in case they figured anything out about the tests.

Eggsy told them a little bit about how he, Roxy and Merlin had stopped V-Day and shared some details about his other missions. He also asked about them, their plans and why they had accepted the invitation. Zhang felt like he was stuck in an army as big as China's and Vahid felt like he could help the world more as a spy for an organization like Kingsman than as a cop. Eggsy liked Parlak's reasons more, he was a true knight while Zhang seemed to mostly care about himself. It was appropriate that Ywain -who reminded Eggsy of the last Arthur quite a bit- had been the one to propose Bolin.

After a few minutes Eggsy excused himself and him and JB went to the weight-lifting area of the gym, leaving the recruits sparring. He spent the rest of the morning exercising his chest and arms before he washed himself in his dormitory and, after pouring a bit of food for JB, took the capsule to the shop, where Roxy was waiting for him.

"I thought a gentleman never kept a lady waiting." Was her greeting.

"It's good that there are no ladies here, then." Smirked Eggsy.

Roxy rolled her eyes before leading the way outside. They were instructed to not get too far away from the shop and thus went to their usual pub two streets north of Savile Row.

Both of them were in casual clothes since they didn't want to attract much attention. Between them, the only thing out of place was the umbrella in Eggsy's hands but luckily it was overcast so it wasn't that odd for him to be carrying it.

"I hope Merlin has a mission for me today." Commented Eggsy after they ordered, sitting at a table in a corner.

"You just got back yesterday, I thought you'd go and see your family today." Roxy pointed out.

"I don't want to go there just to be out right away." Replied Eggsy with an evasive tone that Roxy didn't miss.

"I'm sure Merlin would give you the day if you asked him..." She sing-sang, but her expression turned serious at Eggsy's troubled face. "It's Harry, isn't it?"

Eggsy merely nodded, staring at the table so intensely one would think it was a murder scene. Roxy was sure he was thinking about Harry's death.

"Eggsy, you can't keep doing this. You can't bottle that up using work as a shield. The more you push it back, the more it'll eat at you and one of these days you're going to snap in the middle of a mission and get yourself killed." She was feeling really concerned for her friend.

"I don't need therapy, Rox, I know what I'm doing. It'll pass."

"I'm sure Merlin can set you up with a psych..."

"I'm not crazy, Roxy." He said, with finality that let Roxy know they weren't speaking about the subject anymore.

She looked at Eggsy -who was still avoiding her gaze and focusing on the table- and sighed.

"Fine but I still think you should go and see your family. How long has it been, a month?"

"Yeah, I know, maybe I'll go later this afternoon if Merlin still doesn't have anything for me. But what about you? You arrived two days ago and, as far as I know, you haven't left the mansion either."

"That's because I'm actually on duty right now, I'm helping Merlin out with looking at some files on the riots in Egypt that we got this morning. He thinks I might have to go there after all. At this point I'm just waiting for my flight."

"You keep telling me to not immersing myself at work, I think the last time you saw your family was before I saw mine."

"The difference is that I'm sure my family doesn't miss me. My parents are still not so happy over me leaving college and the more I push back dealing with their crap, the better."

"Sometimes is a bitch not being able to tell, huh?"

"Tell me about it." She concurred. "Anyways, Arthur told me that the final test of the two recruits will be tomorrow. They weren't given dogs for this cycle because Arthur and Merlin felt that just a few months wouldn't be enough time for them to train them and get attached to them. Plus they saw our dogs so they might have figured out they didn't actually have to kill them."

"Whatever it is, I hope Parlak gets it. Zhang seems a little bit of a prick."

Roxy snorted but nodded her agreement just as their food arrived. They ate in silence for a few minutes before Eggsy spoke up again.

"Man, I haven't had sex in months."

Roxy's face snapped up and she asked, squinting. "Where are you going with that, Eggsy?"

He blinked a couple of times before laughing out loud. "Oh, don't flatter yourself. It's just sometimes I forget you're not one of my mates. Well, male mates."

Roxy rolled her eyes again. "Thanks for that. You're not my type anyways. But, really, where are you going with that?"

"I don't know, it's just that I suppose people in our line of work don't have much of a love life it seems. I'm sure Harry died single and all of the other geezers seem to be single too. I think with Tilde I just got lucky... Have you been getting any?"

"Now that you said it, no. Since before we started training, for that matter." She stared at the distance for a couple of minutes before continuing. "I guess you're right, I suppose we are meant to be lonely."

Eggsy sighed. "Well, still worth it."

"Definitely."

After their lunch Roxy went back to the mansion and Eggsy decided to visit his family after all, taking JB with him.

At first his mother and sister had moved in with him at Harry's old house but in his last visit Eggsy decided that it was too dangerous for them to live with him, plus it was getting increasingly difficult to explain his long absences.

Roxy came to his rescue by claiming that, since in the very little time she wasn't in the Kingsman manor she crashed with her family, she didn't actually need a house yet so he could move his mother and sister to Lancelot's house. Merlin was glad with the arrangement since it meant not having to install a security system in yet another house. Roxy had to pay a month's vacation for her entire family so that the Morton manor could be fitted with all of Merlin's toys by a team of IT agents.

The house was near the countryside in the western outskirts of London and his family seemed to be very happy there. Sometimes he wished he could spend more time there, he loved playing with his sister and JB; but duty came first.

His mother screamed when she saw him at the door and, after almost suffocating him in a tight hug, immediately offered him a second lunch which he wasn't able to refuse. He spent the entire afternoon playing with his sister and JB. Having to worry about being far from a school was still a couple of years away so for now he was just happy that she had this much room to play. He was thinking of getting her her own dog, but needed to discuss it more with his mother.

He helped his mother with making dinner and, after eating and putting Daisy to bed, he started getting anxious. Once his mother went to sleep and the rerun of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. he was watching ended, he decided to just go to bed too, nightmares be damned.

He woke up with a start. To his own surprise, it hadn't been a night terror since he actually hadn't dreamed of anything, but his smartphone. It was a text from one of Kingsman's secure numbers.

"Galahad to HQ immediately. There's a mission for you."

Eggsy almost felt like throwing the phone against the wall. _"Damn Merlin" _he thought_ "first good sleep in months and he wakes me up in the middle of the goddamn night. He must have done it on purpose."_


	6. Taking Merlin for a ride

October 13, 2015

"GALAHAD, NO!" yelled Merlin from the co-pilot seat just as Eggsy made a particularly harsh turn while trying to evade their pursuers.

"Goddamnit, Eggsy" agreed Roxy, while trying to regain her balance. She was on the car's open ceiling trying her best to shoot their pursuers, keep her footing with Eggsy's reckless driving and avoid getting shot, all at the same time.

"Sorry, guys, but this piece of crap won't ever lose those arseholes unless I do stuff like this." Rebuffed Eggsy, but his smirk betrayed him.

"Shut up, we're just 2 KM away from the base anyways, Zhang and his team are waiting for us there."

"About that, what are we to do? just flat out shoot them until they're all dead?"

"Unless they surrender." Commented Roxy before firing two shots. Eggsy and Merlin heard a car swerving and then crashing against a wall, Roxy had hit her mark.

"That's two down, three to go." Roxy pointed out, sounding quite proud of herself.

Merlin was checking his Clippad, making sure that they weren't about to be ambushed. He gasped and yelled. "Wait, Galahad! Don't go over that route, there're two cars parked there!"

"Shit!" Eggsy managed to change his route at the last second, barely avoided hitting a wall, and then continued in the opposite direction. Roxy was almost thrown out and the three pursuers closed in, forcing Lancelot to duck from the ceiling to avoid getting shot by a flurry of bullets.

"Damn it, Merlin, couldn't you give us slightly faster cars?" Said Eggsy, feeling at the edge of his patience.

"I could, but we'd have to sacrifice the bulletproof casket and windows." Deadpanned Merlin, without looking up. "We're getting away from the base. I have a bad feeling about this."

"That's not helping!" Exclaimed Eggsy, but honestly he was getting scared too. He felt as if they were being herded. "Why are you even here? We would be there already if it were only Roxy and me with you in HQ telling us what to do."

"Of course. Lancelot, how fluent are you in Japanese?" Merlin asked sarcastically. Roxy didn't even answer as she was trying to get a couple of shots through the window. "And you, Galahad?" He raised his eyebrows. "I thought so. Tristan is the only other fluent Kingsman and right now he's in Johanessburg."

They were in Tokyo, trying to give a hand against a coalition of Yakuza who had abode their time after Valentine's Day to make their coup. But they hadn't been fast enough in their communication with the imperial government and, due to a couple of coincidences, their covers had been blown, which had led to their current situation.

Right now they were trying to reach a Navy base that, with quite a bit of trouble, had been recovered by the government. Zhang and a group of field agents were waiting for them there along with the base's regiment. Zhang had took his loss for Percival with stride and was happy working as a support agent. Even if he didn't lead missions, it was still a much better job than as a soldier for the gigantic chinese army (which was still recovering from the chaos anyways).

Parlak -now Percival- on the other hand, seemed to be a perfect fit for the team. Eggsy had invited him a beer when he passed the final test (that had turned out to be the flooding room, Zhang went by himself towards the showers leaving Parlak to his own devices, but Parlak noticed the one-way window and instructed Zhang to help him break it) and they had hit it off. He had gone in a mission with Roxy to Moscow and she agreed that Arthur and Merlin had made the right choice. Percival was still in Moscow in a bodyguard and communications mission for the president due to a couple of messages Merlin had intercepted. He was to help keeping the government secure until any immediate threat was dealt with and had complained several times about how bored he was.

Roxy seemed to want to switch places with him. "Now that we're talking about you being here, how are the other agents dealing without having your voice on their ears every five minutes?" She asked, still focusing on the pursuing vehicles.

"Amelia and her team can handle themselves without me for a couple of hours." Answered Merlin. Ever since they had recalled all of the support agents in February, Amelia had stayed in the Manor. She wasn't sent back to Berlin because Merlin realized she was quite competent and had kept her around as his second in command of sorts for mission control.

"Thank you, Merlin." Came Amelia's voice from the car's radio. "I already notified Zhang about your situation. He'll be sending two teams on patrol to your most likely routes for support."

"Thank you!" Chorused Eggsy and Roxy.

"No! Send them back, Amelia." Interjected Merlin.

After a moment, she answered, echoing Galahad's and Lancelot's incredulous gazes. "Why?"

"We still don't know how big the forces we're dealing with are. If they have contingents all over the city, and that seems to be the case, anyone who comes out of that base might be wiped out immediately, only weakening our situation further. Galahad, Lancelot and I will be fine, tell them to reinforce security of the base. The Yakuza might already know we're heading there and attempt a strike." Explained Merlin, calmly.

"You're right, I'm sorry, Merlin." Apologized Amelia.

"No reason to. Don't worry, Galahad will kill us before they do."

If they hadn't been approaching the sea and thus about to become a walking bullseye, Eggsy would have swore at Merlin. He needed to find a route that kept them covered by buildings and Merlin wasn't coming forward.

"Or you will kill us. We need to get away from the sea, Merlin."

"I'm working on it, turn to the left."

Eggsy obeyed and sped off between the last rows of buildings, the three pursuing cars not far behind. Eggsy noticed that they were running low on fuel, which meant that the yakuza might run out soon too. He was hoping that the car had special wizardry fuel that lasted longer, otherwise they were fucked.

"Ok, turn to the left, it's very narrow so you'll have to be careful. Lancelot, prepare to Ignite the Night."

Eggsy squinted and grabbed the steering wheel with all his might, focusing so much in not even scratching the walls to even hear what Merlin and Lancelot were saying.

"NOW!" Yelled Merlin all of a sudden. Roxy threw her lighter grenade through the ceiling with all her strength. A minute later an explosion almost made Eggsy lose control of the car.

"Yes!" Exclaimed Roxy. "Other two down, and the third one won't be able to get pass the other two's wreckage any time soon."

Merlin closed his eyes an exhaled, relieved.

"WATCH OUT!" Eggsy screamed before crashing full force against the car that had emerged at the end of the narrow street. Roxy, who couldn't have been wearing a seatbelt, was thrown against the front seats and hit her head against the edge of the open ceiling. She then fell awkwardly on the backseat, out for the count, a trail of blood running down her head.

Merlin's clippad had smashed against the windshield and bounced back, hitting him square in the face. He seemed to be unconscious too.

Eggsy was feeling as if he had been crushed by a ton of bricks, but he was still sentient at least. He groaned and looked up.

"Shit." The other car had been smashed beyond repair and whoever was driving wouldn't be coming out soon. They seemed to have expected the Kingsmen to be farther than they thought. The problem was that Eggsy could hear another car approaching rapidly.

Although Eggsy could tell that the resilient Kingsman taxi could still run, he had no way to get the other car away from the exit, specially not with his unconscious teammates. _"At least I hope Roxy is just unconscious."_ He thought.

He weighted in his choices, grabbed his Rainmaker and broke radio silence through his earpiece.

"Amelia, you there?"

"Yes, Galahad. What happened?"

"We just crashed, a car that came out of nowhere. Merlin and Lancelot are incapacitated and we have incoming. Could you tell me how far I am from the base?"

"Two point five KM, how bad is the incoming?"

"Just one car as far as I can tell, I'll try to deal with them. If you don't hear from me in ten minutes, contact Tristan. Tell him to come here as soon as he's done in Johanessburg. If we don't make it here, the mission still needs to be carried through or Japan might go into civil war."

"Understood, Galahad... "She paused for a moment. "Please contact me before ten."

"Will do. Out."

Finally the other car doubled the street an appeared in Eggsy's line of sight. He didn't miss a beat and threw his lighter grenade. The explosion threw the car off balance and it rolled across the street. But Eggsy knew it wouldn't be so easy.

Sure enough, a second car, that had come more slowly, appeared. The ambush had been prepared very carefully, which let Eggsy know that were dealing with smart people. But they were dealing with Kingsman.

The car slowed to a stop around 30 meters from Eggsy and three heavily armed men came out. Eggsy opened his umbrella to block their first barrage and proceeded to shoot one of them in the head.

The other two hurriedly took cover and continued to unload their magazines on Eggsy, who knew his Rainmaker wouldn't hold up for too long, the guns were of rather high caliber. Nonetheless, he started approaching them, crouching as he knew that his suit wouldn't resist those bullets.

Once he was near enough, Galahad stopped and waited. Just when the bullets started finally trespassing the umbrella's shield, the men stopped firing and one of them cautiously walked towards Eggsy, falling on Eggsy's trap. Faster than the man could react, Eggsy jumped and punched him across the face with his ring hand, electrocuting him. Afterwards, he performed a side aerial, barely avoiding the renewal of the third guy's fire, to take cover behind the car away from his opponent's line of sight.

He took out his standard issue pistol and, using the night vision of his glasses, shot at the man below the car, knicking one of his legs. The yakuza screamed in pain and started firing blindly, forcing Eggsy to retreat. Just as he was about to retrieve what was left of his Rainmaker, he felt a burning pain on his shoulder. He yelped and grabbed it. His suit had caught most of the impact but the bullet had managed to tear and graze his skin. Now he was angry.

With his Rainmaker in front of him, he circled the car just as the man was doing the same. Knowing he didn't have much time, he had an idea. He took off his left shoe and, calculating his aim, threw it over the car. The yakuza yelped in surprise and, a moment later, fell to the floor, dead. The blade had touched him.

Still grabbing his shoulder, Eggsy looked up and down the street and, after his glasses didn't pick up another car approaching, went back to the Kingsman taxi.

"Amelia." He said, out of breath.

"Galahad! Thank god, only twenty seconds left."

"That's me, always nicely on time." He smirked, but groaned at the pain again.

"Are you clear? I can contact Zhang to get you if you are."

"Yeah, I think we are. But just in case, tell him to bring only two soldiers with him and to leave the other agents there. It's priority to not risk the base. The car is still working."

"Roger that. Take care, Galahad."

After the conversation Eggsy turned back to the car, where Merlin seemed to be stirring. Glad that his friend and mentor was fine, Eggsy went to the backseat to check up on Roxy, who was still unconscious.

She had a pretty nasty wound on her head, bleeding profusely. Eggsy quickly took the First Aid kit of the car and tried to tend the wound to stop the bleeding as best as he could, but his hands were trembling so much he was having trouble just with opening the box.

"Let me." Said Merlin, ignoring the bleeding gash he had across his own forehead. Eggsy moved aside and between them they did their best to keep Roxy alive, but she seemed to have lost a lot of blood.

"Fuck" lamented Eggsy, holding back tears. "I should have let her drive the damn car and take her place against the pursuers."

"You are the best driver. If any of us had taken the wheel all of us would have been caught." Reasoned Merlin.

"Then you should have taken the guns!" Screamed Eggsy, now openly crying. Roxy's face was getting paler by the second.

"Maybe, but I think you're disrespecting her by taking the blame for her choices." Said Merlin, who closed his eyes and seemed to shake a little bit.

"Shit, you're bad too." Eggsy breathed deeply to calm down and took the first aid kit, now tending to Merlin's injury.

After about ten minutes, they got a ping in the car dashboard. The support team was near. Eggsy went out and, clearing the field, spotted the approaching Zhang with two soldiers. With a titanic effort, all four of them started to move the crashed car after leaving the dead driver on the side of the street.

When there seemed to be enough space for the Kingsman car to squish through. and Merlin seemed to be about to pass out again, Eggsy jumped at the driver's seat and drove towards the base as fast and as carefully as he could.

Half an hour later, Eggsy and a group of soldiers were taking Roxy and Merlin to the infirmary, where the doctor and the nurse proceeded to work as best as they could on the two injured Kingsmen. Eggsy offered his help only to be shooed out.

He waited by the door not moving, not even talking except to keep Amelia updated. One hour later the doctor came out.

"Merlin." He said, clearly having trouble saying the codename seriously because they had refused to give their real names. "Is already stable, we gave him some painkillers and he'll wake up in a couple of hours.

"Lancelot is in a critical state. Her brain didn't suffer any major trauma, but she did fracture her skull and lost a lot of blood. We'll have to wait until she wakes up to make further checks but I think you made it on time."

"What do you mean 'until she wakes up'?" Asked Eggsy, alarmed. "She might not?"

"Well, with these kind of injuries it is not unheard of for the patient to enter a coma."

Eggsy felt as if all the air left his lungs. She might be stuck like that forever. And it was his fault. If he only had reacted faster to the car. If he had hit the brakes sooner...

The doctor seemed to notice his despair as he quickly put a hand on Eggsy's shoulder, his injured shoulder. Eggsy winced and retreated. "What's happening? Are you injured too?"

Eggsy let the doctor check on him and, after some coercion, he was led back into the infirmary where the nurse removed the bullet -it hadn't manage to penetrate completely, but it did get stuck on his muscle. After he was bandaged, he went to check on Merlin, who seemed to be sleeping soundly, and Roxy, who was breathing in a shallow, barely perceptible way.

Feeling tears stinging his eyes again, Eggsy excused himself and left the room against the protests of the doctor. He was going to kill them, he was going to kill every single Yakuza he set his eyes on for what they had done to his friends. As soon as his shoulder was better, he'd go after them.

Just as he thought that, he remembered Harry. How utterly helpless and impotent he had felt when he saw Valentine do it. But just like with Valentine, he'd get even. He didn't even care if that wasn't part of the mission and that wasn't how a Kingsman wasn't supposed to feel. It was better than to feel guilty, he'd promised himself, after Harry, that he would never leave anyone he cared about come to harm. He had failed again, but at least it wouldn't be in vain.

Just as he was thinking of just start chasing them right away and ignore his shoulder, Zhang called him.

"Oi, Galahad!" Eggsy turned towards the field agent, glad that he wasn't crying. "Merlin woke up and wants to talk to you."

Eggsy nodded and went back to the infirmary. Merlin, half of his head bandaged, was already tapping away on his spare clippad.

"Galahad, " he said without even raising his eyes. He was completely back to normal, it seemed. "If I know you half as well as I think I do, I assume you're thinking on going on a solo mission to dismantle the headquarters of the Yakuza group that attacked us today."

Eggsy didn't answer, and didn't have to. "I thought so, well, I've contacted Arthur about this and he has given you the order to stay within the compound until further notice. Failure to obey would mean your discharge of the Service."

"What the hell, Merlin?" Eggsy was furious.

"Galahad, you can't keep us safe. What happened to me or Lancelot isn't your fault. Once again I ask you to respect our decisions and to keep in mind that this isn't a line of work with a high life-expectancy." Merlin talked politely, but his voice had a sterner tone to it. Eggsy felt as if he was back in training.

Both Kingsmen stared daggers at each other for a couple of moments until Eggsy nodded, feeling as if the bones of his neck were paralyzed.

Before any of them said anything else, they heard a groan.

"Oooouh" came Roxy's weak voice. As if she were a magnet and him a piece of metal, Eggsy was at her side almost immediately.

"Lancelot, you ok?" He asked softly.

"Galahad." Eggsy couldn't help but be shocked that she remembered to use his codename despite her state. Once again she proved she was effortlessly the Kingsman he had to work very hard to be. "What happened?"

"Well, a car blocked the taxi and the ceiling blocked your head." Smiled Galahad, trying to be funny. He was rewarded by a small smile of her own.

"I see, well I feel like crap. I think I'll go back to sleep." Eggsy felt a little uneasy but, according to the doctor, the fact that she had woken up meant that the worst had passed.

A few hours later, and under the doctor and Eggsy's protests, Merlin stood up, ready to get back to work full time.

"I'm sorry, Galahad, but I need to check on the recruits for Caradoc. I'm not entirely sure Arthur is made to handle training."

"Jesus Christ, do you ever stop working?"

Merlin merely stared at Galahad with boredom for a second before turning around and walking out of the door without answering.


	7. Lance to Dubai

January 8, 2016

"How's it goin', baldy?" Roxy heard Eggsy's voice in her ear.

"Damn it! Shut up! Leave me alone!" He had been pestering her with the nickname since her last mission because they had to shave her head completely just so they could do their best job in the surgery. Fortunately it had been a success and she wouldn't even have a scar. She was glad for it but was still annoyed at her hair, which was pretty much a buzz cut nowadays, forcing her to wear a wig for this mission.

Eggsy's taunting only made it worse. "That's a no, baldy. Since Merlin had to go back to Japan and the IT team is spread out changing codes for nuclear devices, he needed to leave someone competent in charge. That could only possibly be me, of course."

She rolled her eyes, but decided to fire back. "Big talk for someone whose last mission was babysitting the King."

"If you must know, we had a wonderful time. He's a very cute kid. Take a left, it'll be faster."

She was driving a model-of-the-year Bentley and feeling exposed about it. But she couldn't much pass as someone who would be invited to a party like this in Dubai if she came riding a Kingsman taxi.

Her mission was merely to infiltrate Omar Maalouf's inner circle. He was the son of a former oil mogul that had been kidnapped by Valentine but, since oil prices dropped and with the worldwide fear of even leaving the house making the oil sales even lower, he seemed to have taken a side gig as a weapons dealer.

According to Merlin, that was to be expected, specially since a lot of countries had flat out disappeared, forming others or just small city nations run by either a militia formed by the people or a few former elites or mafias that had built their own armies.

The big powers had managed to ultimately survive, even the civil war in the USA had been completely averted -in big part thanks to Kingsman, they had managed to track and neutralize more of the last Caradoc's sympathizers- This was more of a problem for small countries.

For that reason, something like a weapons dealer would be below Arthur's radar these days, but there were rumors that some of the weapons Maalouf had in his stock were of the atomic variety and, thus, he needed to be dealt with quickly. But the first step was to confirm the rumors.

After getting clearance into the hotel, Roxy parked the car. She adjusted her wig and outfit -a simple yet opulent bulletproof cocktail dress, a purse with several gadgets and a Rainmaker- and stepped out. A valet led her till the fiftieth floor, where the party was already in full swing. A waiter immediately offered her a drink and she accepted a vodka martini ("urgh" came Eggsy's voice, to which she smirked at since she had ordered it just to bother him).

There were people from pretty much all over the world in there, which didn't surprise her. There were militias in every continent and subcontinent and this was pretty much a convention for arm dealers. They could form alliances and partnerships in this place. Her cover was an Italian socialite, daughter of a mafia boss from Sardinia).

She stroke up small talk with several people, waiting for her glasses to pick up Maalouf among the crowd but he seemed to be a no-show so far. She decided to skip the dance floor and was about to go upstairs and star searching for rooms but as soon as she opened the first door she almost crashed against her mark. The man lost his balance and reached up to Roxy's shoulder for support. On instinct, she moved away and grabbed his hand but luckily she noticed what she was doing before she could harm him. She instead twisted his arm and put it across her shoulders, making it look as if she had been the one to look at him for support.

"Oh gosh. I'm so sorry, I must be drunk." She said. After helping him regain his balance, she studied him.

He was far better looking in person than the pictures in Kingsman gave him credit for. He had obviously shaven since his last had been taken, was dressed in a simple grey suit with no tie. Brown skin and he clearly kept himself in shape. Usually thirty one would have been a little too old for her, but in this case she almost wished it'd have been a honey-trap mission.

"Oh no, it was entirely my fault." He said automatically in a heavy middle east accent. He then took notice of her too and immediately seemed much more interested. "But, my, what is such a pretty lady like yourself doing around here?"

"Oh, I was just visiting the country on my family's behalf." She said with a flirty smile but keeping enough steel in her face and tone to let him know she knew exactly what was being done in that hotel. His interest spiked at that too.

"I see. If that's the case, would you mind joining me for a drink?"

"Not at all."

They walked till the end of the hallway and went inside. The room was spacious and beautifully decorated, focusing on red shades.

"Careful, Roxy, he might notice your wig!" Commented Eggsy, half joking. Roxy made a mental note to kick him in the groin next time they sparred.

Lancelot kept her eye on him to make sure he didn't put anything on her drink. He offered her a glass and drank himself before sitting in the bed.

"So, what is this business that brought you this far?" He asked.

"Oh, my uncle is in dire need of some _means_ to deal with a couple of issues that have turned up. He and some colleagues have been building an... _organization_, but they need a little extra _protection_." She recited, keeping the lighthearted tone but putting emphasis in certain words. She wanted to edge towards the matter at hand but couldn't be too blunt, it might blow her cover. She hoped he understood her meaning well enough.

"I see. And you think you can find this... protection, in here?"

"Oh I'm just travelling really, but I heard very good things about this place." She sat on the bed, maybe a little too close for a friendly chat but she had already pinpointed some armed henchmen and wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible.

He didn't miss her closeness and his demeanor became ever more confident and relaxed. "Well, in that case I might be able to help you. Assuming you have the means to pay me."

"Oh, be sure we can pay you in any way you want." She said, getting closer to his face and making a point to show him she was looking at his lips. She then retreated. "But we first need to know what you can offer."

She stood up, leaving him slightly disappointed, and walked towards the drinks, casually surveying the room and hoping that Eggsy might catch something through her glasses's video feed.

She pretended to pour some more and then take another drink. In reality she had barely touched the first drink he offered, she need to stay completely sharp. She turned around at caught him staring at her ass, which had been one of her purposes. Suppressing a smirk, she leaned on the mini-bar table and asked. "Well?"

"I need to know how dire a protection you need. I can offer you pretty much _anything_."

"Got him. Also there are some papers in the first drawer in the table to the right of the bed. If you can get them, that'll be the best." Murmured Eggsy.

"Well, our goal is to make our beautiful island a country of its own, but we have a feeling the big guys won't like that unless we have something as big as them to leave us alone."

Maalouf finally seemed to catch up to her meaning and his behavior became more reserved. She went back to the bed next to him and put her hand of top of his. Making her best show of desperation and need, she said, with tears in her eyes. "Please, we just want peace and freedom, we'll do anything if you give us what we need."

His eyes darkened and, to her surprise and Eggsy's, he kissed her. She opened her eyes in shock and, before she could stop herself, she karate-chopped him in the neck. He screamed in pain and dropped to the bed, groaning and grabbing his neck.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! You caught me by surprise." She said while helping him massage his neck. He looked at her wearily but still relaxed under her touch.

"No, it's my fault, I guess I overstepped a line." He said, sounding hoarse, and continued. "I think you might have come in just the right time. I got just what you might need just a couple of weeks ago."

"Oh, really?" She asked with pretend girlish excitement.

"Yes, it is very dangerous. And I got them from some contacts in the former North Korea. It's one of the few they had that actually worked. In the chaos some got lost, but some friends managed to locate one and transfer it to me."

"Almost there, Roxy!" Exclaimed Eggsy.

She blinked convincingly a few times and asked, trying her best to sound lost. "I have a feeling I don't follow you. I don't know much about Korea so I don't really know what you're talking about." To make a point, she placed a hand on his leg. He stared at her hand for a moment before looking back to her.

"Well, I don't know how they call it in Italy, but I believe in general they would be... nuclear devices."

"Yes!" Eggsy cheered, he transferred the last seconds of the feed to most major government intelligence agencies right away and then gave Roxy the clear to go.

"Oh!" Exclaimed Roxy, before smiling. "That sounds just like what I was looking for." She stood up. "I can't wait for my family to know!"

He stood up too, suddenly serious. "Where do you think you're going?"

She looked at him in surprise. "To tell my family about this so they can get in contact with you?"

He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "I'm sorry, miss, but that won't happen. You'll tell us how to contact your family and they'll come here. Until then you will remain here. You'll understand that I can't risk this information getting out."

Roxy pretended to be alarmed, but she was expecting it. "What?! You can't do that! If you keep me here we won't do any business with you!"

"That's fine by me too, I have plenty of buyers in line." She then remembered the papers. "And all the better for us, I thought we were having fun."

At this, he smiled wolfishly and stepped closer to her.

She pretended to be scared for a second longer and then smiled uneasily. "Well, I guess there's no reason to have a fight over this, is there?"

"Now you're talking, baby." He stepped into her personal space and put his hand on her hips. Not missing a beat she put her arms across his neck and, in a swift movement, fired an amnesia shot. Maalouf dropped to the floor, out for the count.

"Too bad he's a dickhead. He's cute." She said before removing the dart.

"I'm not your type but this prick is?!" Asked Eggsy, mocking offense.

"Awww don't be jealous, I'm sure you'll find a man like this some day too!"

She went to open the drawer while trading jabs with Eggsy and realized too late her mistake. As soon as she opened it, an alarm sounded.

"Fuck!" swore both Kingsmen simultaneously. Not wasting time crying over spilled milk, Roxy hurriedly grabbed the papers, stuffed them in her purse and went for the door.

"Is there another way out of this room?" She asked.

"No, sorry. You'll have your work cut out for you, Lancelot." Said Eggsy, now completely serious.

She inhaled deeply, took a vapor grenade from her purse, and threw it under the door. There was sudden yelling in arab. She didn't waste a second and forcefully opened the door, the Rainmaker in front of her absorbing most of the gunfire.

She fired a shotgun round directly at the main in front of her, who was thrown back on top of two others. She repeated the process twice more and proceeded with stun rounds. One of the guards managed to dodge the hits and came close to her. She simply jumped and kicked him square in the neck.

She took the rifle of one of the fallen crooks and waited for reinforcements. She cleaned the first group one by one as soon as they doubled the corner but after a few minutes they stopped coming, forcing her to change her glasses to heat vision. They were accumulating in the hallway doubling the corner, apparently too afraid to go on and have her shoot them.

She considered her options. The longer this drew out, the less likely she was of getting out of there alive. She took her lighter grenade and, calculating her angle, threw it right at them. Their screams were drowned out by the explosion. Roxy swore and changed her glasses back to normal since the heat of the grenade had pretty much blinded heat vision.

To Eggsy's amusement, she took off her wig and threw it the same way she threw the lighter. There was no fire. Carefully, she peeped at the hallway and saw that she had completely ignited the night. Careful not to step on any bodies, she approached the door, noticing that everything had gone quiet at the party.

"Galahad, do you have access to their video feed? What is happening out there?" She asked Eggsy.

"On it. Most of the guests were thrown out and there are 23 armed men with their guns trained right at your door."

She took the second vapor grenade from her purse and, with all the force she could muster, threw it under the door. She had a plan.

As soon as she heard confused voices, she stepped out, holding her umbrella upfront and then throwing it at the center of the group. She cartwheeled twice to her left, avoiding gunfire and, using one of her standard issue guns, got two of the men square on the head. By then most had noticed she was no longer among the vapor cloud but, before anyone could fire at her again, she charged at them.

She grabbed the barrel of the gun of the man closest to her and hit him in the face with it while at the same time shooting another in the head. She jumped over the man she had just knocked out and hit four of them simultaneously with her four limbs. She was moving too fast and careful to keep one of them in front of her at all times so that they were afraid to shoot and just hit one of their own.

She punched the next man in the groin, took his gun and, using him as a human shield, shot another, before rolling over and kicking one across the knee. Not missing a beat, she backrolled and then made a side aerial to her right, avoiding another two rounds and getting another two in the head. She landed next to another man who immediately went to grab her but she put her whole weight while twisting his arm, breaking it. She used the man's body to block another gunshot round and then fired at her shooter and charging against him.

The next man tried to hit her with his gun but she dodged, grabbed his shoulders and jumped, putting her feet on his chest before jumping back, forcefully throwing him to the ground. While spinning midair lengthwise, she unloaded the rest of her magazine in the three gaping men that remained. The other five had seemingly made a run for it.

"That was really nice! Good show." Congratulated Eggsy.

"Thanks." She smirked, looking at the group of dead or groaning men all across the room.

After making sure, using heat vision, that the other five weren't just taking cover and aiming at her, she approached the door just to find it locked. This meant that they couldn't run away so she went all across the apartment, shot each of them with amnesia darts, went back to the main room and also shot the ones she hadn't killed with amnesia darts.

"You made sure to erase the show from their footage, right?"

"Affirmative"

"Good, so how do I get out now?"

"I already tried unlocking the door, but no cigar. I think you'll have to use the window." Eggsy sing-sang.

"Damn it."

She shot the window after reloading her gun and was ready to make the jump when she caught movement in the corner of her eye. Omar Maalouf had woken up and was at the door, surveying the carnage and holding a rifle. He then noticed her and started shooting at her while coming down the stairs.

Roxy took cover and waited. She couldn't kill him because his weapons would just go to one of his contacts and this whole mission would be to waste since then it would be needed to look each of those contacts up. After a few moments, she jumped out in a cartwheel to avoid his gunshots and, with two dive rolls, she came near him, hit him in the stomach with the butt of her gun and took his. He yelled in pain and grabbed his belly, before looking at her in contempt.

"Don't be mad, baby, I just wanted to do some business with you." She then considered that he had no way to know that she had caused all this other than the fact he was staring at her right now, since she had put him down before the chaos started. Making her mind, she grabbed his chin and, to his complete surprise, kissed him the way he kissed her before and shot him with another amnesia dart.

Eggsy laughed out loud before she jumped, using the hook in her purse to drop several floors and, when the wire ran out, shot the window in front of her. Thankfully it was an empty suite.

She fixed her clothing, holstered back her gun and, muttering under her breath about her hair, walked out. She noticed a swarm of policemen climbing the stairs, asked some of them what had happened and finally walked towards the parking floor like nobody's business, ignoring the stares at her head.

* * *

AN: Like I said in the first chapter I don't like Author Notes but I'll make an exception this time because I was given a shout out! So you guys should check out Google Girl11 's fic. She's awesome.


	8. Galahad's Torment

April 1, 2016

Eggsy had a good feeling, if he said so himself. The mission was going well, so far he had struck a conversation with Hernandez, who seemed to like him. While a bit old for him, he didn't really mind if this turned into a honey trap mission; as far as he was concerned, he was close to getting her intel about a possible new conspiracy against the fragile USA government. As one of the biggest mafia bosses near the area, she was bound to know of the matter and maybe even be in on it.

His mission was to get the names of as many key people as possible and, if he managed to get moles, all the better. The nebulous information they had was just that some people from the former (and mostly defeated) rebel armies had trying to get funding and backup from organized crime around the world, particularly in neighboring countries. The new Dinadan was conducting a similar mission in Canada.

Eggsy wasn't particularly fond of Dinadan, even if it was unfair of him given his own background. The girl was literally the daughter of a Yakuza boss, actually the leader of the gang that had almost killed Roxy, who happened to be a technical genius. She had found Merlin, contacted him, became a reverse mole and helped take down her own father's organization. This earned her Merlin's trust and he proposed her as a recruit. She managed to get the position, even if it was a close call between her and the former marine that had been proposed by Arthur.

Although, by all accounts, she seemed like someone worthy of Kingsman, he still couldn't forget what her family had done to Roxy. Lancelot, who had struck a rapport with Hana herself, had reprimanded him several times, but he still couldn't help to feel that way, even if he didn't show it to her.

Hernandez's proposal to dance took him out of his reverie and he, putting on his most charming smile, walked her towards the center of the dance floor where, as luck would have it, a tango started. It turned out that Hernandez was quite the skilled dancer, far better than Eggsy but, thankfully, most of his martial arts moves were transferable and he managed to keep up with her seemingly without effort.

They danced all over the floor, moving in increasingly forceful ways as the music went into crescendo. As the music finished, Hernandez jumped at Eggsy, who managed to catch her and turn around holding her high in his arms before lowering her. Eggsy put on his most confident smirk while looking at her straight in the eye, both breathing heavily.

"Well, that was quite the dance, mr. Un..." She paused, opening her eyes wide. Eggsy swore under his breath, pushed her away and ran for the door.

His cover was blown and apparently had been blown for a while. Someone had told her and she'd been trying the waters with him to confirm the information, playing him like a toy the entire time. He couldn't deny it was a blow to his confidence as the rapport had been seemingly going well if he said so himself.

"GET HIM" He heard her voice from behind him. He immediately dodged a guard, spun around and kicked him across the neck. The guard gave a strangled yelp before falling to the floor. The move allowed him to keep on without slowing down and he crossed the door to find himself in front of a row of ten guards, all looking startled.

Eggsy moved his neck sideways, hearing it pop, and charged.

The guard nearest him raised his gun, but Eggsy was faster, grabbed the barrel and used it to hit the man in the nose. In the same movement, he spun around hiding behind the man's body, taking the shotgun, and pushed him towards the other guards, who scrambled away. Without missing a beat, he shot an array of bullets, hitting another three guards, before doing a wall run and falling on top of the fifth man.

With the momentum, he made a side roll and kicked another guy in the knee. He heard a couple of bullets whizzing by where his head had been a moment before. He ducked behind the guy whose leg he had just broken, using him as a human shield, grabbed a knife from a holster the man had and threw it at the next, right in the belly. By then the exhaustion due to having danced so aggressively started to set in, but he was close.

He made a number of dive rolls towards the three remaining henchmen, barely avoiding the shotgun bullets he knew his suit couldn't bounce back. Eggsy jumped right in front of them, socking one across the face with his signet ring, paralyzing him with electricity.

The final two men went to aim at him but he merely grabbed their shoulders, jumped between them to make an upwards wall run on the locked door behind them, completing a perfect three hundred and sixty degrees spin after which he put all his weight on the man on his left, making him drop under Eggsy's weight. In a fluid movement, Galahad jumped away from the man's body and, still on his knees, shot an amnesia dart at the last one's neck. The guy dropped cold, still looking unsure of what ha just happened.

Before he managed to open the locked door, he felt a prickle on his neck and, just as he realized what was happening, everything went black.

He slowly woke up, feeling groggy. The first thing he noticed was that he was on the floor in a dark room, the second was that he was completely naked, feeling the cold surface of the floor all over his body.

_"Damn, my glasses" _were the first words in his mind. If the standard procedure was how he remembered, Merlin must have closed the connection on his end. But right now he needed to find a way to get out of there. By the looks of the room, he was about to be tortured and he didn't very much want to experience that.

"He's awake." He heard a voice that seemed familiar, but the sound was muffled so he couldn't pinpoint exactly where he had heard it.

A moment later, a group of armed men in black uniforms walked in from the door at his left. They seemed pretty confident in his own helplessness since they weren't even holding their guns, all in their holsters. He waited until they were close enough before springing into action.

He kicked the first man across the face and, doing a side aerial, punched another in the middle of the chest, right on the sternum. The remaining men, alarmed, went for their guns but Eggsy was still faster, grabbed a man's arm and twisted it and was about to take his gun when a scream from the door stopped everyone on their tracks.

"STOP" yelled Maria Hernandez, aiming a gun directly at Eggsy's forehead. After a moment of looking alternatively at the men on the floor, the other two also aiming their guns at him and the three at each side of Hernandez, he sighed and let the man go before raising his hands.

"Good boy." Smiled Hernandez, lowering her gun but signaling her henchmen to keep theirs trained at Eggsy the whole time. "You have quite the spirit, Mr. Unwin and you obviously have been trained well by that agency of yours. Oh yes" She added at Eggsy's widened eyes. "I know a lot about your agency, I have a friend who knew you before. But his information is sorely outdated."

That's what the voice had seemed familiar, he had heard it in HQ most likely, but if her information was outdated, that meant that whoever the person he heard was, he was no longer a part of the agency. He couldn't remember Arthur firing anyone recently but before he could follow that train of thought, Hernandez continued speaking.

"So, as you see, I'd like to be updated in what are your current plans, if you don't mind." She concluded with a polite smile.

"I'm sorry, I was just a guest at your party. You must have mistaken me for somebody else." Eggsy deadpanned.

Hernadez's smile faltered a little and she seemed furious for a split second, but she composed herself. Eggsy smirked, even if he was terrified, he wasn't going to go out without a fight, either physical or mental.

"I see." She said, slowly. "Then why did you give a fake name with a full background?"

"Pierce Moore is my name. Miss Hernandez, I don't know why you keep calling me mr. Unwin." Smiled Galahad.

"Enough!" She exclaimed, dropping all pretense of politeness. "I know you're spy, I know you were trained by some independent agency, I know you thwarted a previous coup by a rogue agent and, believe me, I can find out what agency is this and where are they located. If you don't start talking, I will have your headquarters bombed!"

"If you're so sure of who you think I am and you're so sure of being able to get that intel by other means... What exactly do you need me to tell you?" Asked Eggsy, rolling his eyes slightly.

She seemed ready to shoot him then and there, but she calmed herself once again.

"What a shame, you're quite the pretty thing." She said, looking him up and down with a disgusting smirk on her face before signaling her guards to advance on him. Eggsy got ready to fight them off.

"Nah, nah." She said, pointing her gun at him again. "Lower your arms, Mr. Unwin, I don't care if you die, but I'd rather... convince you not to."

He looked at her gun and the men surrounding him and, after a moment, he decided to trust Merlin to act fast. He lowered his arms, which were immediately grabbed by two of Hernandez's henchmen, and the punches and kicks started coming.

After solid ten minutes of acting like a punching bag, he was on the floor, bloody and bruised, trying to get a hold of the places they had punished the most. He was breathing heavily, but was glad that he hadn't yelled even once.

Hernandez knelt next to his head.

"Are you ready to talk now, mr. Unwin?" She asked, sounding a little queasy. She mustn't have been used to witnessing torture.

"I think your masseurs missed a couple of places." He exhaled, trying to keep his voice even.

She grunted and stood up. "Let him be for a while. Don't worry, Eggsy. We'll come back to keep you company soon enough."

Just as they were about to close the door, he croaked out. "I can't wait!"

After they left, he slowly sat up and started massaging and stretching his muscles, trying to better gauge the damage. He didn't seem to have any broken bones so that was good, but he still hurt all over. At least they hadn't hit him in the groin, that would have sucked quite a bit.

They were unlikely to feed him or give him anything he might need so, after surveying himself, he did the best he could do: lie down and waste as little energy as possible. After struggling with his pain for a while, he managed to fall asleep.

A sharp pain on his left side woke him up. On instinct, he sprung to his feet and, in the upwards movement, he uppercut the man who had kicked him. The crook groaned in pain and stumbled back a few steps.

"Son of a bitch! What is the matter with this guy?"

The other henchman replied, his gun trained on the still dazed Eggsy. "He's some sort of super spy, dude, like the ones you see in movies, what did you expect when you woke him up by surprise standing next to him?"

"Well I don't care, I'll let this bastard know who is boss!" Argued the other man, still grabbing his own face.

"NO" came the voice Eggsy already hated from the door. Hernandez walked in, wearing a different dress. Eggsy wasn't sure how much time had passed but he guessed that it had been a while since the pain had decreased a lot, but the hunger and tiredness were settling in with a vengeance.

"You won't do anything to him unless I command it. And if you do something stupid like you just did, he can kill you. Specially if you surprise him." She scolded her henchman before turning to Eggsy. "Well, mr. Unwin, I called a friend today who might have better ways to convince you to talk, but I am hoping it won't come to that. So, is your memory of who you are working better now?"

Eggsy looked at her with empty eyes and a blank expression. "Sorry, Unwin still doesn't ring any bells."

She went to slap him but he effortlessly grabbed her hand and twisted it by pure reflex. He caught himself and let her go before he could seriously hurt her. She looked at him alarmed and stepped back.

"Fine, call Gonzalo in." She barked at one of her henchmen.

After a moment, the man walked back in, followed by an older fellow holding two suitcases. The new guy looked at Eggsy with disinterest, set his first suitcase on the little table another henchman brought in and opened it.

He took out a couple of tools and turned one on. It was a simple bar but, right before everyone's eyes, it lighted, becoming red hot in a matter of seconds.

Hernandez looked at the man's tool wearily before looking back at Eggsy.

"This is your last chance, Unwin, talk now or you might get a little... broiled."

Eggsy steeled himself, he wasn't going to betray Kingsman. He physically couldn't, just the idea of talking now brought back memories of Harry.

"Fuck you." He spit at her.

She closed her eyes and turned towards the door. Just before walking out, he spoke towards the torturer. "Try to not mess him up so bad. I'd like to keep him... for entertainment purposes."

That made Eggsy feel even more dread and apprehension, if that was possible.

Hernandez closed the door just as the two guards grabbed his arms again. A few seconds later, his screams echoed all over the hall outside.

The best thing that he could say about that second row of torture was that it was short. "Gonzalo" let him be after poking him with that thing just a few times. However, the guy was clearly a professional, since Eggsy couldn't find a way to lie down properly without hurting burnt flesh. He poked him in strategic places to spread the pain evenly.

The only way he could rest was when exhaustion finally claimed him and he still woke up several times due to both his burns and his muscles aching for sleeping in awkward positions.

The days passed. They did feed him, but only scraps once in a while that left him feeling hungrier, a form of psychological torture. Sometimes they took him to a room with showers where they sprayed water at him at high pressure. There were more beatings, more burns, drowning, cuts. Whatever they could think that wouldn't kill him or permanently damage his body. They wanted to punish him for as long as possible until he'd talk; but, somewhat luckily for him, they hadn't maimed him since the boss liked him, or at least his physical appearance before the torture.

At least they were nice enough to let him go to the bathroom, but they had told him that that was just because Maria didn't want him stinking up the place. Either way, he was glad he didn't have to sleep in the same place he relieved himself.

After around two weeks, that felt much longer specially now since he felt he was nearing a nervous collapse, he felt someone touching him. This startled Eggsy since the henchmen had learned to wake him up by screaming at him, but his body still managed to react on instinct. He jumped (all of his weakened muscles screaming in pain) and swept a kick that was easily dodged by someone faster.

It was Roxy. Roxy was here. For a second he felt transfixed; but the realization of seeing his best friend seemed a wake up call for his brain. Galahad bounced back into consciousness...

"Holy shit, **Roxy**, why didn't you try to wake me up by sound?" ... For the most part, anyways.

After they were safely in the car, driving away from Hernandez's henchmen's fire, Eggsy wanted to ask what had taken them so long, what had happened.

But that would be for another day, right then he merely fell asleep in the back of the car. For the first time in what felt like a lifetime, he didn't wish he were dying instead.


End file.
